He feared that he might not have such funds as he had before for his expenses: The words as he had before are literally “as once and twice,” which can be interpreted two ways. It can mean that he had, once or twice, on previous occasions had funds for expenses (so Revised Standard Version), or it can mean that once or twice before he had run out of money (so Good News Bible). We recommend following Good News Bible (most versions go this way): “this had happened once or twice before.” An alternative model for the first half of this verse is “Antiochus started worrying about how he would pay what he owed. It was not the first time this had happened [or, This had happened before].”

And for the gifts which he used to give more lavishly than preceding kings may be rendered “and outdo the other kings before him who gave expensive gifts” or “give gifts more lavishly [or, to a greater extent] than kings who ruled before him.”

Good News Bible has a good model for this verse, but another possibility is:

• As had happened before, Antiochus started worrying about how he would pay his expenses or outdo earlier kings by giving expensive gifts [to people].

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.