Now that he had foiled the plot: This clause refers to the Egyptians not only winning the battle, but also to frustrating Antiochus’ goal of taking over Egyptian territory. The pronoun he refers to Ptolemy Philopator. So we may render this clause as “After Philopator had succeeded in ruining Antiochus’ plans [or, ambitions].”
Ptolemy decided to visit the neighboring cities and encourage them: As the Revised Standard Version footnote indicates, Ptolemy is not named in the text, but he is clearly meant, and should be named, if not in the preceding clause, then certainly here. Neighboring cities is well expressed in Contemporary English Version as “nearby cities.” Encourage them indicates that Philopator made this trip to assure himself of the loyalty of these cities. By visiting the people of these cities, he would assure them that he stood ready to protect them from attack (encourage in this sense), but he would also gain their support. We suggest the following model for the last half of this verse: “he decided to visit the nearby cities and assure them [or, the citizens] of his support [or, that he would support them].”
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.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.