But when they saw the army coming to meet them, they said to Judas: The Greek connector rendered But introduces a transition here, so it may be omitted (so Good News Bible). The pronoun they refers to the men who are following Judas. They are a guerrilla group, a band of outlaws, and can hardly be described as an army themselves. The sight of a real army frightens them. Good News Bible may be followed here, except that the direction of movement may be made clearer; for example, “When Judas’ men saw the enemy soldiers coming up toward them, they asked.”

How can we, few as we are, fight against so great and strong a multitude?: The Seleucid army was large and well-armed, with good weapons. Judas’ band of followers did not have ready access to high-quality weapons (see 1Macc 3.12). Good News Bible has a good model here, but translators should add the idea that the Seleucid army was well-equipped. An alternative model is “There are only a few of us! How can we fight against such a large group of soldiers who have so many weapons?” Since the question here is rhetorical, it may be rendered as a statement by saying “There is no way that the few of us can fight such a large army!”

And we are faint may be expressed as “Besides, we are exhausted already” or “… we are feeling very weak.”

For we have eaten nothing today simply means that the men had no opportunity to eat that day or perhaps no food. It does not imply “fasting” (New American Bible). Translators may follow Good News Bible here, or they may say “because we haven’t had a thing to eat all day.” Contemporary English Version provides a helpful model for this clause and the previous one, saying “And besides, we feel weak, because we haven’t had anything to eat all day long.”

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.