Because of them the residents of Jerusalem fled: Good News Bible has “The people of Jerusalem fled in fear,” which states that they fled because of “fear.” This idea is clearly implied, and makes a more natural translation (at least in English) than Because of them. Another possible model is “This [the killing] caused the people of Jerusalem to become so afraid that they fled [the city].”

She became a dwelling of strangers: Good News Bible states this line very well with “and the city became a colony of foreigners.” A “colony” is an area in a land where concentrated numbers of foreigners live. There is often an implication that the foreigners are oppressors of the native-born; this fits well here.

She became strange to her offspring, and her children forsook her: The city had become so strange, different, that the Jews no longer recognized it. They did not feel at home there, so they left. They were not “forced to abandon the city” (Good News Bible) by military action. They were not ordered to leave, but they felt it would be safer elsewhere, so they left voluntarily. Revised Standard Version shows the poetic parallelism in these two lines in Greek by using offspring and children. Translators who render this verse as poetry should be able to maintain this repetition by saying “Jerusalem became strange to her children. Her children forsook her.” An alternative model for translators that do not use poetry here is “The people were [or, had become] strangers in their own city, and they abandoned it.”

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.