Troops of horsemen drawn up: Like the word “companies” in the previous verse, the Greek word translated troops refers to a certain number of men, but again, the number is not important. This clause indicates that cavalry units were lined up to attack each other. We may say “They lined up in large groups facing each other.”

Attacks and counterattacks made on this side and on that may be expressed as “and one group would attack and the other attack back.”

Brandishing of shields is literally “movings of shields.” As the people watched, they could see the shields moving about as the soldiers protected themselves. Good News Bible says “Shields were clashing,” which shifts the focus from a visual image to one of sounds. Ordinarily this would be fine, but it is a problem here, since the people only see this as a vision. Nothing is said about them hearing anything. Contemporary English Version says “Shields flashed,” which is better. See also the model below in which we combine this phrase with the last two phrases of the verse and express the idea of the shields moving by describing their appearance as the sun reflected off them.

Massing of spears is literally “masses of spears.” This phrase speaks about a vast number of spears being thrown through the air. Good News Bible says “there was a rain of spears,” which compares the spears to rain. This is an effective picture in English. Translators should find an effective way in their language to describe this scene.

Hurling of missiles: The Greek word for missiles can refer to anything that is thrown through the air. It often refers to “arrows,” and this is a good choice of words here if translators must be specific. For this phrase Good News Bible has “arrows flew through the air,” which is natural English, but translators using this as a model must take care not to imply that the arrows had wings. We may combine this phrase with the previous one, saying “spears and arrows filled the sky” (Contemporary English Version).

The flash of golden trappings: The word flash refers to the reflection of the sunlight on the gold items. Trappings here are “ornaments” (New English Bible). The text does not say that the ornaments were on the horses (so Good News Bible), although that is possible. We may render this phrase as “gold ornaments of all kinds glittered in the sunlight.”

And armor of all sorts: Good News Bible reverses this phrase and the previous one.

An alternative model for this verse is:

• They lined up in large groups ready to fight. One side would attack and then another, back and forth. Shields, armor, and gold ornaments glittered and flashed in the sun; spears and arrows came raining down [or, the sky was filled with spears and arrows].

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.