Now when Demetrius the king saw that the land was quiet before him and that there was no opposition to him: The land was quiet before him means no battles were going on and none were threatened. There was no opposition to him means no one opposed Demetrius’ rule. We may reverse the order of these clauses, saying “When King Demetrius saw that no one was opposing him and that his kingdom was peaceful.”

He dismissed all his troops, each man to his own place: Troubles began when he dismissed all his troops. The king’s army consisted of professional soldiers. Their life and livelihood was in the army, and this action meant that they were now without jobs. They would resent this. In ancient times dismissed veterans were potential sources of danger. This would prove to be the case here. Each man to his own place means the soldiers were sent to their own home towns. An alternative model for this clause is “he sent all his own soldiers back to their own homes.”

Except the foreign troops which he had recruited from the islands of the nations: Demetrius kept in service only the mercenaries from the Greek islands. For the islands of the nations, see the comments on 1Macc 6.29.

So all the troops who had served his fathers hated him: His fathers refers to the Syrian kings before Demetrius~II whom the soldiers had fought for. Nothing in the Greek corresponds to Good News Bible‘s clause “because they had lost their source of income,” but it is certainly helpful, and may well be necessary for readers to understand what is involved here. We normally expect soldiers to be happy to be sent home. Contemporary English Version expands this sentence even further by saying “But this made his own soldiers turn against him, because they had fought for many years, first in his father’s army and then in his.”

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 1-2 Maccabees. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.