In a number of languages translators will prefer using direct speech here (so Good News Bible); for example, “They [the Nabateans] said….”

Many of them have been shut up in Bozrah and Bosor, in Alema and Chaspho, Maked and Carnaim: Many of them may be rendered “Many of your people [the Jews].” Shut up translates a different Greek verb from that in verse 5. Here it means “imprisoned” (Good News Bible). A better rendering is “made prisoner” (as we will see below in verse 27). Bozrah, Bosor, Alema, Chaspho, Maked, and Carnaim were towns, not cities, in the region east of Lake Galilee. Good News Bible spells Carnaim as “Karnaim,” which is acceptable, but we prefer the spelling in Revised Standard Version. This verse cannot be translated without looking ahead to the next verse, where there is a problem.

All these cities were strong and large: Good News Bible says “fortified cities.” A better rendering is “they were all large towns with strong walls.”

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.