He also took Jazer and its villages; then he returned to Judea: The word also is not necessary. Translators may begin this verse simply with “Judas and his soldiers captured….” Jazer was a town in Ammon; its exact location is not known. And its villages is literally “and her daughters,” but this is an idiom for the outlying villages surrounding the town. Villages will be expressed in some languages as “small groups of houses with fences around them.” Good News Bible‘s model for the verse is a good one.

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.