And they turned to prayer, beseeching that the sin which had been committed might be wholly blotted out: The soldiers realized that their comrades deserved God’s judgment, but they still honored them as valiant soldiers who fought for the Jewish way of life, so they prayed that God would not hold this sin of idolatry against those who had died. Good News Bible omits and they turned to prayer, assuming that this has already been implied with “they praised the ways of the Lord” (verse 41) and “they begged him,” but this is not quite the way the Greek text presents it. The men praised God’s judgment (verse 41), but turned to prayer afterward (verse 42). The first half of this verse may be rendered “They then began to pray to the Lord, begging him to completely blot out this sin that the men had committed” or “… begging him, ‘Please forgive completely the sin that these men have committed.’”

And the noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves free from sin: For the noble Judas, Good News Bible has “Judas, that great man,” and Contemporary English Version says “Judas, that wonderful man,” because an adjective modifying a person’s name is rather awkward in English; but it will certainly be possible in many other languages. Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves free from sin means he urged them not to sin, because now they knew what the penalty would be. The people is literally “the multitude.” It may be translated “everyone” or “all the soldiers” (similarly New American Bible).

For they had seen with their own eyes what had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen: See the model below.

An alternative model for this verse is:

• They then offered a prayer, begging God to forgive completely the sin these men had committed. The noble Judas then urged all the soldiers not to commit any sins, because they had seen for themselves that those who had sinned were killed in the battle [or, died fighting the enemy].

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.