Then they cried to Simon to make peace with them, and he did so: The pronoun they refers to the Syrian soldiers in the fort who had not died from hunger. Once again, “for a truce” (Good News Bible) is an insufficient rendering for to make peace. A better model for this whole sentence is “Finally they begged Simon to let them surrender, and he allowed them to do so.”

But he expelled them from there: The conjunction But is not correct here. It is better to begin this clause without a connector, saying “He expelled them from the fort” or “He ordered them to leave the fort.”

And cleansed the citadel from its pollutions: The ritual cleansing of the fort is an expected result after Simon expelled it occupants, who included Hellenizing Jews as well as the Syrian soldiers. Its pollutions refers to everything they did to make the fort ritually unclean. For this clause we may say “and he removed everything from it [the fort] that made it [ritually] unclean according to the Law of Moses.”

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.