But Jonathan and his men did not know it until morning, for they saw the fires burning: The writer leaves it implied that the Jewish soldiers assumed that the enemy army was still in its camp for they saw the fires burning. We hesitate to add that much to clarify the passage, but Good News Bible helps the reader by reversing the two clauses in this verse, and connecting the first clause to the second one with the conjunction “but.”

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.