Taking them all, he departed to his own land: Good News Bible is good here, and so is Contemporary English Version with “Then he returned to his own country with the things he had stolen.” Another possibility is to connect this sentence closely with verses 21-23 as Revised English Bible does with “and carried them all away when he left for his own country.”

In the middle of this verse Revised Standard Version shifts to poetry, marking the beginning of one of the poems that are found in 1Maccabees. Everyone agrees that such a poem is here, but there is disagreement concerning where it begins. Revised Standard Version and the New Revised Standard Version (New Revised Standard Version) begin the poem here, within verse 24. Contemporary English Version, New English Bible, Revised English Bible, New American Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Abel, and Goldstein complete verse 24 in prose, and begin the poem with verse 25. Good News Bible and New Jerusalem Bible begin the poem with verse 26. An American Translation translates verses 24b-28 as prose, which is an option translators should consider. Our own preference is to follow Good News Bible in translating verses 24-25 as prose, and verses 26-28 as poetry, where imagery is first clearly used. Our discussion of the remainder of the subsection will follow this scheme, although translators should feel free to translate all the poems as prose, or in this case, to begin the poem earlier.

He committed deeds of murder, and spoke with great arrogance: Good News Bible interprets Antiochus’ speaking as boasting about his murderous deeds. This is valid, but as another possibility, translators may wish to consider reversing these two clauses to build up to the statement in verse 25; for example, “He spoke very arrogantly [or, boastfully], and murdered many people.”

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.