And recovered the temple famous throughout the world: Good News Bible renders recovered as “recaptured,” which is good, but we may also say “regained control of.” The temple famous throughout the world may be rendered “the Temple that people all over the world know about.” In many languages it will be necessary to identify the subject, and begin a new sentence here, for example, “Our soldiers recaptured our world-famous Temple.”

And freed the city: The city is Jerusalem. Freed the city refers to removing Syrian control, and returning Jerusalem to its own people. “Liberated Jerusalem” (Good News Bible) is one way to say it.

Restored the laws that were about to be abolished means that the Syrians had almost succeeded in stamping out the Jewish Law, but the Maccabees were able to return it to its rightful place in governing Jewish life. Contemporary English Version says “put back into effect the laws that those barbarians had hoped to wipe out.” Another possible model is “put back into effect the laws that those godless Syrians were about to abolish [or, wipe out].”

While the Lord with great kindness became gracious to them: In many languages it will be helpful to expresses this clause as a separate sentence, as in Good News Bible, which has “They were able to do all these things because the Lord was merciful and kind to them.” A better model is “During all this time the Lord was merciful and kind to them.”

An alternative model for this verse is:

• Our soldiers recaptured the Temple that people all over the world know about. They also freed Jerusalem and put back into effect [or, restored] the laws that those godless [or, heathen] Syrians were about to abolish [or, wipe out]. During all this time the Lord was merciful and kind to them.

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.