The material in verses 38-40 is an intrusion into the narrative, which resumes at verse 41. Contemporary English Version approaches this interruption by combining verses 38-41, moving “The king granted their request” from the beginning of verse 41 to this point, and putting the rest of the verse at the end, but at the beginning of a new section. We agree that a new section should begin with verse 41, but suggest that the remainder of this section be put in parentheses, if this is possible in the translator’s language. This will close this section. “The king granted their request” in verse 41 can be handled easily enough at the beginning of the next section. Translators who cannot use parentheses may begin this section with “Here is a summary of what happened to the Jews in Alexandria….”

So their registration was carried out from the twenty-fifth of Pachon to the fourth of Epeiph, for forty days: Pachon and Epeiph are months in the ancient Egyptian calendar. These dates correspond to July 7–August 15. Translators may avoid the awkwardness of the names by translating simply “midsummer” or render this whole clause as “Philopator’s officials had begun registering the Jews [or, writing down the names of the Jews] from the twenty-fifth day of the month Pachon till the fourth day of the month Epeiph, altogether forty days.”

And their destruction was set for the fifth to the seventh of Epeiph, the three days may be rendered “and he planned to kill the Jews during the three days from the fifth to the seventh day of the month Epeiph.” This would be August 16-18. For convenience a model of verses 38-40 will be given at the end of the discussion on verse 40.

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.