Then Hermon and all the king’s friends pointed out that the beasts and the armed forces were ready, “O king, according to your eager purpose”: As the Revised Standard Version footnote indicates, there is a textual problem here, but this particular problem affects the translation very little if at all. There is a much greater problem in that some Greek manuscripts add a long paragraph here. It is clearly not original, and we think it does not deserve mention in a footnote. The translator’s problem here is whether to frame everything the people tell the king as direct speech, indirect speech, or mix the two (so Revised Standard Version). Contemporary English Version makes it all indirect by saying “Hermon and the king’s friends told Philopator that the elephants and the soldiers were ready to kill the Jews, just as the king had ordered.” This is a good model, as long as the reader can be trusted to know that “the king” and “Philopator” are the same person. It is probably helpful to explain that the king’s eager purpose is to kill the Jews. For the king’s friends, see 3 Macc 2.23. Alternative models for this verse are:

• Then Hermon and all the king’s officials said, “Your Majesty, the elephants and the soldiers are ready to kill the Jews, just as you gave firm [or, explicit] orders to do so.”

• Then Hermon and all the king’s officials said, “Your Majesty. You gave firm [or, explicit] orders for the Jews to be killed, and the elephants and soldiers are ready to do it.”

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.