We have heard that the Jews do not consent to our father’s change to Greek customs: The writer is the king. So in a number of languages translators will want to keep the royal We and our. Good News Bible provides a helpful model for this clause. Another possibility is “I know that the Jews do not agree [or, want] to live like Greeks, which my father wanted them to do.”

But prefer their own way of living and ask that their own customs be allowed them may be expressed as “but they prefer their own way of life and have asked that I allow them to follow their own customs.”

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.