“But since this has happened,” the king said: If the beginning of this verse is translated literally, as in the Revised Standard Version, it raises the question of what the demonstrative pronoun this refers to. Contemporary English Version takes this has happened to mean “everything I’ve done for this country.” Hadas takes it to mean the fact that he has actually entered other temples. In this context the phrase can mean simply “Even so” (Anderson) or “So what?” We think this approach is better than that of Contemporary English Version.

“Why should not I at least enter, whether they wish it or not?”: This rhetorical question may be rendered as a defiant statement (so Contemporary English Version). The pronoun they can refer to the priests, the Jewish people, or even whoever wrote the Law, but it is probably better expressed as in Contemporary English Version, by a shift to the second person: “I should be allowed inside whether you say it’s all right or not.”

Here is another possible model for this verse:

• But the king [or, Philopator] said, “I don’t care. I have every right to enter that temple whether you want me to or not!”

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 3-4 Maccabees. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2018. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.