Others who came up in the same way wheeled around against the defenders and set fire to the towers: Others who came up in the same way simply says that other Jewish soldiers climbed the walls also. The Greek phrase translated wheeled around can be interpreted in different ways. New English Bible has “Under cover of this distraction,” New Jerusalem Bible says “in the rear,” and Good News Bible translates “on the other side of the fort.” We recommend New English Bible‘s approach, and suggest the following models for the first sentence of this verse: “While the defenders were distracted [by this action], others climbed the wall and set fire to the towers” and “While the people defending the fort were fighting these young men, other Jews climbed….”

They kindled fires and burned the blasphemers alive: To avoid the redundancy in they kindled fires, we could render this whole sentence as “Those who had blasphemed [or, insulted] God were burned alive in the fires set by the Jews.” Good News Bible also provides a helpful model here.

Others broke open the gates and let in the rest of the force, and they occupied the city: Good News Bible renders Others as “A third force,” since one group of twenty Jewish soldiers had begun the action, another group had climbed the walls and set fire to the towers, and this third group broke open the city gates. Good News Bible‘s rendering may be helpful for some languages, but others can follow Revised Standard Version. Good News Bible says that this third force let in the rest of the army “to capture the city.” This is good, as long as it is understood that they do in fact capture the city, which Good News Bible does not actually say. It may be clearer to render this whole sentence as “A third force broke down the gates and let in the rest of Judas’ men, who took possession of the city.”

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.