The king granted their request at once: At the beginning of this section, translators may wish to remind the readers of the context by specifying what their request was; for example, this clause may be rendered “When the Jews asked King Philopator to allow them to go home, he quickly granted their request.”

And wrote the following letter for them to the generals in the cities may be rendered “He also wrote a letter about them to his generals in the cities of Egypt.”

Magnanimously expressing his concern means he was generous to the Jews in what he had to say.

Here is an alternative model for this verse:

• When the Jews asked King Philopator to allow them to go home, he quickly granted their request. He also wrote a letter to his generals in the cities of Egypt, in which he spoke of the Jews in generous terms. Here is what he said [or, wrote]:….

Translators may wish to indent the king’s entire letter (3 Macc 7.1-9); see the comments at the end of 3 Macc 3.11.

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.