He gathered a host of captives may be rendered “He took many prisoners.” Some translators will need to make it clear where these prisoners came from; they were not just criminals. So we may say “He brought back many prisoners when he fought against his enemies.”

He ruled over Gazara and Beth-zur and the citadel: The capture of Gazara (Good News Bible “Gezer”) is narrated in 1Macc 13.43-48, Beth-zur in 1Macc 11.65-66, and the Jerusalem citadel in 1Macc 13.49-50. The emphasis is on his gaining control of these places, so we may say “He captured the towns of Gezer and Bethzur and the fort in Jerusalem.”

And he removed its uncleanness from it: See 1Macc 13.50 for the ritual cleansing of the Jerusalem fort. The pronouns its and it refer to the fort. It will be helpful to make clear what the uncleanness was. Contemporary English Version does this well by rendering this line as “he removed all the idols that had made it unclean.”

And there was none to oppose him: The fort put up no resistance, so we may say “No one could stop him.”

An alternative model for this verse is:

• He took many prisoners. He captured the towns of Gezer and Bethzur. He took the fort in Jerusalem and made it ritually clean again by removing the idols in it. No one could stop him.

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.