When Timothy learned of the approach of Judas, he sent off the women and the children and also the baggage to a place called Carnaim: Families were traveling with Timothy’s army. When Timothy realized that Judas was near, he arranged for the safety of the families by sending them to Carnaim to escape harm. This may be built into the translation, as illustrated by the model below. The baggage is literally “the other baggage” in Greek, because families were considered part of a soldier’s “baggage,” which constituted anything considered necessary to have but which would slow military movements and otherwise get in the way. Carnaim was another fortified town in Gilead (see 1Macc 5.26). An alternative model for the first half of this verse is “When Timothy learned that Judas’ army was coming, he sent off the women and children of his soldiers for safety, along with the baggage, to a town called Carnaim.”

For that place was hard to besiege and difficult of access because of the narrowness of all the approaches: Hard to besiege may be rendered “hard to attack” or even “hard to capture.” Difficult of access may be translated “hard to get to” or “hard to reach.” The approaches were narrow passes through the mountains. The last half of this verse may be rendered “It was hard for an enemy to capture that place or even reach it, because they could only get to it through narrow mountain passes.”

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.