And Judas pressed the pursuit with the utmost vigor, putting the sinners to the sword, and destroyed as many as thirty thousand men: Judas pressed the pursuit means that Judas did not consider the victory won when the enemy fled. He followed them, to catch and kill them, and did so with the utmost vigor (Good News Bible “as hard as they could”). To put people to the sword is to kill them. Good News Bible lacks the idea of sinners, translators should keep it; for example, Contemporary English Version says “Timothy’s wicked army.” An alternative model for this verse is:

• Judas and his soldiers chased after them as hard as they could, killing these sinners [or, wicked people] as they went. They killed about 30,000 men.

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.