But Jason kept relentlessly slaughtering his fellow citizens: “Jason and his men” (Good News Bible) is clearly implied here, but it is not said that the men Jason led into Jerusalem were Jews. The people in Jerusalem were Jason’s fellow citizens, but not necessarily “their fellow Jews” (Good News Bible). If translators can say “But Jason kept slaughtering his fellow Jews” without leaving the impression that he alone was killing people, it would be better than making the attacking army Jewish, which it may not have been. Contemporary English Version does this with “But Jason kept on killing more Jews.” This clause can be joined with the last half of the previous verse by saying “The soldiers defending the city were forced off the city walls. Then when fighting broke out in the city streets, and Jason was leading the merciless slaughter of his fellow Jews, Menelaus fled for safety to the fort, near the Temple hill” or “Jason and his men forced the soldiers off the city walls whom Menelaus had stationed there. Then when Jason’s and Menelaus’ soldiers started fighting in the city streets, Jason kept on killing the Jews without mercy. Menelaus fled….”

Not realizing that success at the cost of one’s kindred is the greatest misfortune: Good News Bible and New American Bible translate misfortune as “failure,” which makes a neat contrast with success. The writer is saying that if the only way a person can succeed is by hurting his own people, he has in fact failed. Good News Bible provides a good model here. Contemporary English Version is also helpful with “without realizing that a victory which destroys your own people is the worst possible defeat.”

But imagining that he was setting up trophies of victory over enemies and not over fellow countrymen: But imagining may be rendered “He seemed to think” (Contemporary English Version). Setting up trophies of victory is a figurative way of saying “winning” or “winning a victory.” It would be easy to translate this last part of the verse in a misleading manner. Jason was not under the impression that his opponents in Jerusalem were not Jews. He knew they were his own people. He was not thinking of them as his own people, however, only as enemies opposed to his rule. Good News Bible cannot be used as a model here, since the word “success” is wrong. As the next verse makes clear, Jason did not succeed; he did not win a victory at all. But while the fighting was in progress, he could have thought that he was winning. A better model is “He was concerned with nothing but [or, He was only interested in] defeating his enemies; he never thought about these being his own people.”

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.