Let not the vain-minded praise their vanities at the destruction of your beloved people: There is a play on the Greek words for vain-minded and vanities, which Revised Standard Version tries to reflect. But the meaning will be clearer if we say that their vanities refers to the gods worshiped by the Gentiles. So we may render this clause as “Please don’t allow these worthless people to praise their worthless gods for the death of the people you love.”

Saying, ‘Not even their god has rescued them’: Eleazar points out to God that if he allows Philopator to be the agent of God’s punishment, he will be able to boast that he killed the Jews and their god was not strong enough to save them.

Here are alternative models for this verse:

• Please don’t allow these worthless people to praise their worthless gods for the death of [or, for killing] the people you love. They will say, ‘Not even their God could save them.’

• … They will say that you, our God, were not able to save us.

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.

We ourselves and our children are faring well: Compare 3 Macc 3.13. The pronouns We and our refer to Philopator himself. Our children probably refers to the people he ruled: the Egyptian people. He himself may have had no children at this time. This clause may be rendered “I and the Egyptian people are well [or, in good health].”

The great God guiding our affairs according to our desire: Contemporary English Version begins this clause with the conjunction “because,” indicating that the king and his people are well because of what God has done. We recommend that translators add such a connector. This clause may be translated “because the great God is our guide [or, guides us], and this makes us grateful [or, happy].”

Here is an alternative model for this verse:

• I and my people, the Egyptians, are well, because the great God is our guide [or, is guiding us], for which we are grateful.

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.