As a result he was accused before Eupator by the king’s friends: Ptolemy was accused of treason because he tried to deal with the Jews fairly, and this can be specified here. For the king’s friends, see the comments on 1Macc 2.18. This clause may be rendered “As a result, the Friends of the King denounced him to Eupator” or “Because of this, some friends of King Eupator brought charges against Ptolemy” (Contemporary English Version).

He heard himself called a traitor at every turn: Translators who are able to follow Revised Standard Version here should do so; it puts the emphasis where it belongs, on Ptolemy’s personal feelings. Good News Bible moves this clause to a later point in the verse, but to do that we must assume the truth of the accusations against Ptolemy, and we cannot do that. See the comments below.

Because he had abandoned Cyprus, which Philometor had entrusted to him, and had gone over to Antiochus Epiphanes: This is court gossip. It is given as the kind of thing Ptolemy’s opponents were saying about him. Whatever the accusations were, we are not told that they were true. We don’t even have to understand them, only know that Ptolemy’s enemies were saying these things. For Cyprus see the comments on 1Macc 15.23. Philometor is King Ptolemy~VI of Egypt (see 2Macc 4.21).

Here is a possible approach for the second sentence of this verse:

• He knew that personal enemies were calling him a traitor every time they had a chance. They accused him of abandoning the island of Cyprus, which King Philometor of Egypt had placed under his command, and joining Antiochus Epiphanes.

Unable to command the respect due his office, he took poison and ended his life: The first clause in this sentence has a hopeless textual problem; discussing it in detail here would serve no purpose. Here are the translator’s options for the meaning of the sentence:

1. Ptolemy killed himself because people no longer gave him the respect that a provincial governor should have (so Revised Standard Version, Good News Bible, New English Bible).
2. One of the accusations brought against him is that he failed to bring any dignity to his office. So he killed himself (so New Jerusalem Bible).
3. He took his life as a protest against Eupator. Goldstein follows this interpretation by saying “He did not consider noble the authority of Eupator. Accordingly, he took poison and put an end to his life.” Goldstein offers this rendering only as a conjecture and does not even put part of it in his own translation (he leaves blanks in the translation). However, it is an interesting approach, which he explains in his commentary.

For the last sentence of this verse we offer the following models based on each of these interpretations, with appropriate footnotes, and translators may take their choice.
1. No longer able to maintain the respect that his office demanded, he committed suicide by taking poison.*
* No longer … demanded: Greek unclear.

2. They said that he had not been a competent governor.* So he killed himself by taking poison.
* They said … governor: Greek unclear.

3. Since he had no respect for Eupator and no confidence in him,* he killed himself by taking poison.
* Since … in him: Greek unclear.

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.