He destroyed every male by the edge of the sword: See the comments on verse 28. This clause may be rendered “They killed all the males in Ephron.”

And razed and plundered the city: Razed (literally “uprooted”) means they tore down the town. Good News Bible says “leveled,” which is a good rendering. Any plundering would be done first, so Good News Bible reverses the verbs here. The whole clause may be rendered “and they took all the valuable things and leveled [or, destroyed] Ephron.”

Then he passed through the city over the slain: Judas did just what he said he was going to do; he walked through the town. This is not a pretty picture, but Good News Bible renders it well. The sentence will be more effective as the closing sentence of a paragraph.

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.