Then the men in ambush emerged from their places and joined battle. All the men with Jonathan fled: All the men with Jonathan fled is an overstatement, as the next sentence makes clear. Good News Bible expresses verses 69 and 70a as one sentence. Another model that does this is “69 When these men came out of hiding and joined in the battle, 70 all of Jonathan’s men fled.”

Not one of them was left except Mattathias the son of Absalom and Judas the son of Chalphi, commanders of the forces of the army: Obviously more than two men had to remain in order to beat back the enemy army. The writer probably intends us to understand this without being told. Perhaps we can clarify this without misrepresenting the text by saying “No one was left to fight the enemy but Mattathias the son of Absalom and Judas the son of Chalphi, and the troops under their command.”

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.