The men within, relying on the strength of the place: It will be helpful to begin this verse with the connector “But” (which is actually in the Greek text); for example, Contemporary English Version renders The men within as “But the enemy soldiers inside the fortress” (similarly Good News Bible). Relying on the strength of the place may be expressed as “felt that they were safe inside the strong walls of the fort.”

Blasphemed terribly and hurled out wicked words: The Jews were confident they had their enemies confined with no way of escape. But their enemies were confident that they were strong enough to resist the attacking Jews, so they taunted them with insults against God, probably as a tactic to provoke them into attacking. They wanted the Jews to come close enough to be killed. Good News Bible takes wicked words to be insults directed at the Jewish soldiers, distinct from blasphemies against God. We believe that blasphemed terribly and hurled out wicked words are synonymous expressions, so we prefer to say “shouted all sorts of terrible insults against God” (compare 2Macc 12.14).

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.