I do not know how you came into being in my womb: The mother is saying that she does not understand the biological process involved in conception and pregnancy. She does not understand how life originates. The translation must not leave the impression that she is unaware that pregnancy results from sexual intercourse. Good News Bible seems incorrectly to give that impression. No one should hear or read this statement and understand it as comical. Contemporary English Version‘s model is helpful: “I don’t understand how you grew inside me.” Another possibility is “Your life began inside my body, and I do not understand how it [or, this process] works.”

It was not I who gave you life and breath, nor I who set in order the elements within each of you: In one sense she did exactly what she seems to be denying here. She will say in the next verse that God did these things. But she means this: “I never decided, ‘Now I will give you life and breath.’ I did not plan how your bodies would be put together.” This explanation may appeal to some as a model, but it can be simplified. Life and breath mean essentially the same thing and can be combined into one term by rendering this sentence as “I never planned what you would look like, and I was not the one who decided when you would come to life.”

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.