The king, possessed by a savagery worse than that of Phalaris … : The king lost complete control of himself. Phalaris was a king of Acragas in Sicily in the sixth century B.C., four hundred years before the time of Philopator. He was remembered for his exceptional cruelty. The translator may use the name Phalaris and explain in a footnote why it is used here. Another possibility is to remove the imagery of Phalaris in the text and refer to him in a footnote (so Contemporary English Version). A model that does this is “The king became angrier than [Phalaris] the cruelest king who ever lived.”

Said that the Jews were benefited by today’s sleep, “but,” he added, “tomorrow without delay prepare the elephants in the same way for the destruction of the lawless Jews!”: Contemporary English Version renders this entire part of the verse as direct speech. This solves several problems, and we suggest translators follow the example of Contemporary English Version, as in the model below. Today’s sleep refers to the king’s sleep, not the Jews’ sleep. Without delay may be translated “waste no time.” Lawless Jews is an ironic touch. The Jews were in trouble precisely because they followed the Law of Moses, but as far as Philopator was concerned, they were people who had contempt for law—his rule, in particular.

An alternative model for this verse is:

• Then the king became angrier than the cruelest king who had ever lived.* He told Hermon, “The Jews escaped today because I was asleep, but tomorrow I want you to get the elephants ready in the same way. Waste no time. Those Jews have no regard for the law, and we will destroy them!”
* The Greek text refers to King Phalaris, who had ruled in Sicily four hundred years earlier.

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.