Then the king, when he had returned to the city, summoned the official in charge of the revenues: Translators may find it helpful to name the city of Alexandria at this point (so Contemporary English Version). He had returned to the city implies leaving the stadium, which was just outside the city, and going back to the city where the king sent for the official in charge of the revenues. This person was the treasurer of the kingdom, “the official who kept track of the kingdom’s money” (Contemporary English Version). We may render the beginning of this verse as “King Philopator went back into the city [or, Alexandria], where he called the official who was in charge of the royal treasury.”

And ordered him to provide to the Jews both wines and everything else needed for a festival of seven days: Both wines does not refer to two kinds of wine. Both wines and everything else means the king ordered two things: (1) wine, and (2) anything else. A possible model for this clause is “He ordered him to provide the Jews with enough wine for a seven day celebration, and give them anything else they needed.”

Deciding that they should celebrate their rescue with all joyfulness in that same place in which they had expected to meet their destruction: Philopator is the one who decided this, not the Jews themselves. We may render this last part of the verse as “The king decided that the Jews should joyfully celebrate their rescue in the exact [or, same] place where they had expected to be killed” or “… they had expected the elephants to kill 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.