καὶ συνῆψεν πρὸς αὐτοὺς πολέμους πολλούς, καὶ συνετρίβησαν πρὸ προσώπου αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐπάταξεν αὐτούς.
7He engaged in many battles with them, and they were crushed before him; he struck them down.
In Gbaya, the notion of being down or being on the ground is emphasized with mbɔlɔlɔ, an ideophone used to describe the expresses the fact of being down.
Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)
He engaged in many battles with them and they were crushed before him; he struck them down: It must be made clear in translation that the pronouns he and him refer to Judas, while the pronouns they and them refer to Timothy and his soldiers; for example, the verse may be rendered:
• Judas had to fight Timothy and his men many times before he completely destroyed them.
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.
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