If you have any enemy or plotter against your government, send him there: Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible follow the Greek text here fairly closely, but we might suggest a translation with more feeling, for example, “Send an enemy! Send someone who’s been plotting against you [or, your government]!”

For you will get him back thoroughly scourged, if he escapes at all: Here Good News Bible takes scourged in a literal sense by saying “beaten.” (The English word “beaten” is ambiguous; presumably Good News Bible means “whipped” and not “defeated.”) However, the idea of punishment is appropriate here, as in verse 34, so this part of the verse may be rendered “When he returns to you, he will have been thoroughly [or, severely] punished—that is, if he comes back at all.” In languages that do not have the passive voice, we may say “When he returns, you will see that God has severely punished him—that is, if he comes back at all.”

For there certainly is about the place some power of God: Good News Bible captures the mood well here by saying “for some strange power from God is at work there.” By “strange power” is meant some power that Heliodorus does not understand. However, a translation must not leave the impression that God’s power is somehow peculiar or weird. The place again refers to the Temple, and this could be made specific, although the opportunity to make it specific will come again in the next verse, where it will fit better. Since the Gentile Heliodorus is speaking here, God may be rendered “a god.” Alternative models for this clause are “I tell you, some strange power from God [or, a god] is at work there,” “God’s power is definitely in that place,” and even “There can be no doubt that power from God [or, some god] is there.”

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.