They showed the elephants the juice of grapes and mulberries: The pronoun They may be translated “Some of the [Syrian] soldiers” (Contemporary English Version), since they were probably the people directly assigned to take care of the elephants. Grapes are purple berries that grow in clusters on vines. Mulberries are small berries that grow in clusters on trees; most varieties are a very dark purple color. Some think the elephants were given an intoxicating drink made from grapes and mulberries; for example, New American Bible has “They made the elephants drunk on grape and mulberry wine,” and New Jerusalem Bible says “The elephants were given a syrup of grapes and mulberries.” However, this is unlikely. In the first place, drunken elephants would be just as dangerous to their own army as to the enemy, particularly if surrounded by horses (see verses 35-36). Further, “wine” is not specifically mentioned; rather the juice of grapes and mulberries is literally “blood of grapes and mulberries.” Some point out that if unfermented juice is meant, this would date the battle to the autumn. Goldstein thinks that they could have kept the juice from fermenting by cooking it, but the picture of people boiling vats of juice for the benefit of elephants is a bit strange. Still further, it would take an awful lot of wine to make one elephant drunk, let alone thirty-two of them. Also, the text says nothing about the elephants drinking anything at all; they were simply shown this juice. It may have been that the color resembled blood, and that showing the animals the liquid or perhaps cloth stained with it was part of their conditioning for battle. In cultures where grape juice and mulberry juice are unknown, translators may say “the juice made from dark-red-colored fruit.”

To arouse them for battle: When their trainers showed them the juice, the elephants (that had been in battle before; see verse 30) became excited, knowing that a battle was not far off. Some commentators suggest that the elephants liked the mixture, and became very excited at the prospect of drinking some. However, if this was part of preparation for battle, it would not take very long for the animals to associate the liquid with an upcoming battle, so we believe that the former suggestion that the animals became excited when they saw the red color is the more likely. It is also possible that whatever the trainers did had no effect on the elephants at all; they just thought it ought to work. At any rate, translators are not required to explain all this to the reader. It will simply remain a peculiar statement that readers will wonder about. That’s what it has been for centuries, and it is not the only such place in Scripture. Other ways to translate this clause are “to get them ready for battle” (similarly Good News Bible) and “to make them eager to fight” (Contemporary English Version).

An alternative model for this verse is:

• Some of the soldiers showed the elephants grape and mulberry juice to make them eager to fight.

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.