Others sold all their remaining property: We are not told why Judas’ men who did not run away sold their property or to whom they sold it, only that they did (see the comments on verse 16). Good News Bible attempts to build in an explanation by saying “so that the Lord would consider them worthy….” We strongly recommend against this. It is unsupported by the text, and other explanations are possible. Perhaps they wanted to be sure that if they were sold as slaves the purchasers would not get their property as well. Perhaps they wanted to ensure that their heirs received the property if they were killed in battle.

And at the same time besought the Lord to rescue those who had been sold by the ungodly Nicanor before he ever met them: Translators may find this part of the verse difficult to express. The soldiers were praying that Nicanor did not succeed in taking Jewish captives. It describes Nicanor as counting his money, so to speak, before he had even captured a single person to sell as a slave. Had been sold is not to be taken literally. At the same time means they all prayed together; it does not mean they prayed at the same time as selling their goods. An alternative model here is “and they prayed together that the Lord would rescue all those people whom godless Nicanor intended to sell as slaves.”

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.