But Maccabeus, noticing that Nicanor was more austere in his dealings with him and was meeting him more rudely than had been his custom: Judas sensed that something was wrong. Nicanor was no longer behaving in a friendly fashion. In fact, he was even being a bit rude. More rudely indicates that Nicanor had been rude already to Judas, and was now even ruder. This was not the case. Good News Bible says simply “rude,” which is correct. The first half of this verse may be rendered “But Judas noticed that Nicanor was no longer being friendly toward him, and was even being rude.”

Concluded that this austerity did not spring from the best motives: This is an understatement. Judas knew that Nicanor’s unfriendly attitude (austerity) meant that something was badly wrong. Good News Bible expresses this clause well with “and he knew that this was a bad sign.”

So he gathered not a few of his men, and went into hiding from Nicanor: Judas did not give Nicanor the chance to arrest him. He got a large number of his men together again, and they went into hiding.

Here is an alternative model for this verse:

• But Judas [Maccabeus] noticed that Nicanor was no longer as friendly as he had been, and was even acting rudely. He knew that this was a bad sign. So he gathered a large number of his men, and went into hiding [or, went where Nicanor could not find them].

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.