There is a difficulty in the narrative. In verse 16 Judas returned victorious with his men to the enemy camp near Emmaus. We are not told of the Jews setting fire to the camp, but in verse 20 it was burning, and in verse 23 Judas and his men returned to the camp, without our having been told that they had left. We might wonder why Judas was burning the camp before looting it, since presumably some potentially valuable objects might be burnt in this way. Here is the probable sequence of events, and it may help translators to envision it. Judas returned victorious to Emmaus (verse 16), but realized the battle was not over until Gorgias and his soldiers were accounted for. For this reason he did not allow his men to become careless by looting the camp, but stationed them, ready for battle, between the camp and the hills where he suspected Gorgias was. Burning the camp before looting it was probably a tactical move. He knew that Gorgias would see the smoke from the burning camp, and perhaps not even try to challenge them. A small detachment was probably given the job of setting fires in the camp, while the main body of Judas’ men stood ready to meet Gorgias. The enemy scouts saw the smoke, saw the formation of troops, and decided the best thing to do was to avoid battle. Gorgias’ men probably came down from the hills in sight of the Jewish fighters, but rather than coming toward the Jews, they turned away and headed toward Philistia, the same direction the defeated main army had gone (verse 22). Judas saw this retreat, and only then gave his soldiers permission to loot the camp (verse 23).

They saw that their army had been put to flight, and that the Jews were burning the camp, for the smoke that was seen showed what had happened: The enemy patrol, at a distance, saw their camp in flames, no doubt with people standing around, while there were Jewish soldiers in battle formation. They gathered from this that their own army had been routed and that the Jews were burning the camp. We recommend revising the order of the clauses in this verse so that the last clause opens the verse as follows:

• They saw smoke coming up from their camp, and knew that the rest of their army was running away, and that the Jews were [now] burning the camp.

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.