And behold, the army of the foreigners met him in the plain: And behold calls attention to the foreign army that confronted Jonathan’s soldiers on the plain (see the comments on 1Macc 3.52). In English its force may be expressed by beginning this clause with “There, on the plain….” If translators have some word or phrase at their disposal that indicates an approaching climax in the narrative, this would be a good place to use it. The army of the foreigners are of course Demetrius’ mercenaries. This clause may be rendered “There, on the plain, the foreign army approached them.”

They had set an ambush against him in the mountains, but they themselves met him face to face: Fairly rugged and steep mountains lay just west of the plain on which the armies met. The foreign army had hidden troops in those mountains, who were to make a surprise attack on Jonathan from the rear when he engaged the main line of troops in open battle. A possible model here is “The two armies met face to face in combat, but the enemy had hidden some soldiers in the nearby mountains to ambush Jonathan’s troops.”

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.