He marveled at the good order of the temple: Philopator was apparently impressed by the care with which things were done at the Temple. Everyone knew what they were supposed to do and when to do it. This is good order. This clause may be rendered “He admired the orderly manner in which things were done [or, the priests did things] at the Temple.”

And conceived a desire to enter the holy of holies: Conceived a desire may be rendered “got the idea” or “the idea struck him.” The holy of holies (literally “the sanctuary”) refers to the Temple building inside the courtyard. Contemporary English Version renders this clause as “he wanted to see what it looked like inside,” which is not wrong, but it omits the important idea that the inside of the Temple was considered an especially sacred space. At this point the narrative jumps ahead to the Jews’ reaction to Philopator’s wish, without ever having Philopator express that wish. It is implied, and translators may wish to help the reader bridge the gap between this verse and the next one by translating this clause as a reference to Philopator expressing his wish. To do this it is necessary to specify to whom Philopator was speaking. Verse 11 says only that “they” respond. It is not clear who is in view with the pronoun “they”; it is not specifically said that these people are priests. They would certainly be Jews of sufficient importance that they would be escorting the king on this visit. Contemporary English Version begins verse 11 with “The Jews who walked with Philopator” to specify the referents for this pronoun. This is not wrong at all, but the verb “walked” is unnecessary. So a possible addition at the end of verse 10 is “He then told the Jewish leaders who were with him that he wanted to look inside the sanctuary itself [or, the holy building].”

Models for this verse are:

• He admired the orderly manner in which things were done [or, the priests did things] at the Temple, and wanted to see what the holy [or, sacred] sanctuary looked like inside. So he told the Jewish leaders who were with him that he wanted to look inside.

• … So he said to the Jewish leaders who were with him, “I want to go and look inside.”

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 3-4 Maccabees. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2018. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.