And they saw the sanctuary desolate may be expressed as “There they found no one was in [or, using] the Temple.”
The altar profaned: The “desolating sacrilege” was on the altar (see the comments on 1Macc 1.54). An alternative model is “the altar had the horrible thing on it.”
And the gates burned: The gates were the entrances into the Temple area.
In the courts they saw bushes sprung up as in a thicket, or as on one of the mountains: The courts refers to the inner and outer open courtyards of the Temple. As will happen with any paved area that is not used, plants had grown from seed in cracks and now had grown large enough to be the size of bushes. A thicket is a dense growth of plants at ground level, usually bushes. For this whole clause Good News Bible has “the courtyards grown up in a forest of weeds.” Its abbreviated rendering is rather idiomatic and will not be natural in many languages. Another possible approach is “The courtyards were covered with thick bushes.”
They saw also the chambers of the priests in ruins: The chambers were built along the sides of the Temple. They may have been for the use of priests, or they may have been storerooms (so New Jerusalem Bible). The Greek does not actually use the word priests, which is supplied. The Greek word for chambers only indicates that they had some function in the Temple. “Priests’ rooms” (Good News Bible) is certainly proper. However, another approach would be to say “rooms [or, enclosures] built along the walls.” A Greek word referring specifically to storage bins is used in 1Macc 6.53.
An alternative model for this verse is:
• There they found that no one was using the Temple. They saw that the horrible thing was on the altar, that the gates of the Temple were burned down, and that the courtyards were covered with thick bushes. They also noticed that the rooms [or, enclosures] built along the walls had been torn down.
Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 1-2 Maccabees. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.