Their concern for wives and children, and also for brethren and relatives, lay upon them less heavily; their greatest and first fear was for the consecrated sanctuary: Good News Bible combines wives and children as “families,” and brethren and relatives as “relatives.” The consecrated sanctuary refers to the Temple; the writer uses the adjective consecrated to stress its holiness. A translator who can find a less common synonym for “holy” might want to use it here; for example, Good News Bible uses “sacred.” But we may also say “God’s Temple.” The order of the sentences in this verse can be reversed to good effect, since the second one goes naturally with verse 17 and the first one leads nicely into verse 19. Here is a model that does this:

• They went into battle more concerned about the holy Temple [or, God’s Temple] than they were for their own families and other relatives.

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.