When this was done: This clause is nothing but a transition between sentences. It may be omitted in translation with no harm. The reader will assume that the guests had come in to join the king at the feast. However, some translators may feel it necessary to include this clause by saying “When the guests had seated themselves.”

He urged them to give themselves over to revelry: The king told his guests to have a rip-roaring good time. Some languages will have suitable expressions for drunken revelry. However, in many languages it will be suitable to say simply “he urged them to have a good time.”

And to make the present portion of the banquet joyful by celebrating all the more: There is a slight textual problem here. Instead of the present portion of the banquet, we suggest following the Greek manuscripts that read “the delayed portion of the banquet” (so Anderson with “this late part of the feast”). The idea here is that since the banquet began late, the guests ought to make up for it by making an even bigger party of it. We do not think a textual note is really necessary if translators follow this alternative reading.

A possible model for this verse is:

• He urged them to have a good time, and since they were starting late, to celebrate even more [to make up for lost time].

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 3-4 Maccabees. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2018. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.