After he had threatened them severely, charging that they had been bribed to contrive a means of escape: The king did not believe the scribes. He thought they had been bribed, that they had taken money from the Jews to allow them to escape punishment. Again direct speech may be used, for example, “The king did not believe the scribes, so he threatened to punish them. He said, ‘You have accepted bribes from the Jews so that they can escape.’ ”
He was clearly convinced about the matter: This clause leads into verse 20 and should be closely connected with that verse. A model here that does this is “But after he had threatened the scribes, he finally became convinced that they were telling the truth 20 when….”
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.
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