Any one willing to give information will receive the property of the one who incurs the punishment, and also two thousand drachmas from the royal treasury: It will be good to begin this sentence with the conjunction “But” (Contemporary English Version). One willing to give information may be rendered “any person [or, Egyptian] who tells us where a Jew is being hidden [or, tells us about someone who is hiding a Jew].” Will receive the property of the one who incurs the punishment may be expressed as “will be given that person’s property.” To make sure that Egyptians hiding Jews are identified, the king offers a reward to anyone informing the authorities that someone is hiding a Jew. Such a person will be given the property of the person on whom he informs, as well as two thousand drachmas. The drachma was a silver coin that was worth about a day’s wage; its exact value is not important here. Contemporary English Version translates “two thousand silver coins,” which is adequate.

And will be awarded his freedom: There are two problems here. One problem is textual. The Greek text says “and will be crowned with freedom,” but the grammar is awkward. Some Greek manuscripts have other readings, and it has been suggested that the text can be emended to say “and will be crowned at the Eleutheria,” which was a religious festival in honor of Dionysus. Crowning would then mean being honored publicly. This emendation is tempting; it solves all the problems and the change in the Greek text is not very large.

Another problem has to do with who is being given freedom. Alexandrian citizens presumably have their freedom. If it refers to Jews being given freedom, it contradicts verse 25, which says every single Jew in Egypt is to be killed. Perhaps it refers to lower class Egyptians, who do not themselves enjoy the rights of citizenship. Again, the emendation mentioned above solves this problem (since the word translated freedom is emended to “the Eleutheria”). Contemporary English Version translates “and will be honored as a hero,” with a footnote saying “One possible meaning for the difficult Greek text.” Contemporary English Version appears to be translating the emendation, in which case it is not quite right to say that it represents “the difficult Greek text” on the printed page. It is a good translation, however. We recommend following it, and offer the following models, with a footnote:

• Anyone who reports a person hiding a Jew will be given that person’s property, as well as two thousand silver coins, and be honored at our religious festival as a hero.*
* honored at our religious festival as a hero: Greek crowned with freedom.

• We will give any person who reports someone who is hiding a Jew that person’s property. In addition, we will give him two thousand silver coins, and honor him at our religious festival as a hero.*
* honor him at our religious festival as a hero: Greek crowned with freedom.

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.