Then, after inscribing them as holy on a pillar: The pronoun them can only refer back to the word “days” in verse 19. But days are not inscribed, words are. So the inscription must be a reference to observing certain days as holidays. Them as holy may be rendered “about these days always being holidays” or “to celebrate these sacred festival days each year.” The Greek word for pillar refers to a stone column (see also 3 Macc 2.27, where the same word is rendered “stone”). Inscribing … on a pillar may be translated “they found a stone column and carved on it” (Contemporary English Version) or “they wrote [or, carved] an inscription [or, words] on a stone column.”

And dedicating a place of prayer at the site of the festival: It is not clear what is meant by at the site of the festival, but it is hard to see how this phrase can refer to any place other than the one where the inscribed column was set up. This clause may be expressed as “They also dedicated a place there for Jews to come and pray.”

They departed unharmed, free, and overjoyed refers to departing the riverbank or wherever the column was set up. The same idea can be expressed as arriving at their own homes by saying “Then each of them went home safe, free, and overjoyed.”

Since at the king’s command they had been brought safely by land and sea and river each to his own place: The idea of sea is a problem, since no sea was anywhere near. Attempts have been made to identify this sea with a certain lake, but scholars tend to agree that it is nothing more than a rhetorical overstatement on the author’s part. Contemporary English Version combines sea and river by saying simply “water.” The model below stays with the text, problematic though it is.

A possible model for this verse is:

• There [by the river] they wrote [or, carved] an inscription on a stone column about these days always being a holiday. They also made [or, dedicated] a place there for Jews to come and pray. Then each of them went home. By land, by river, and by sea, they arrived safe, free, and overjoyed. The king himself had ordered them returned to their homes.

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.