He proposed to inflict public disgrace upon the Jewish community may be rendered “He determined to disgrace the Jews publicly [or, in front of everyone].” As the first Revised Standard Version footnote indicates, the Jewish community is literally “the nation” in the Greek text. However, in this context the author refers only to the Jews in Egypt.

And he set up a stone on the tower in the courtyard with this inscription: The connector and is better rendered “so” (see the model below). As the second Revised Standard Version footnote indicates, the Greek word for stone is literally “stele,” which by definition is a stone set up for a certain purpose and bearing an inscription. The courtyard is surely the courtyard of the royal palace. Contemporary English Version has “the courtyard of the Jewish place of worship,” but a Jewish place of worship in Egypt would have been a synagogue, and there would have been many of them. They probably would not have had courtyards, nor towers. On the other hand, public notices were often posted on the walls of the palace. On the tower does not mean on top of the tower, only somewhere on the structure where it could be read. A tower was a tall structure with a lookout at the top.

We suggest this model for the verse:

• Philopator was determined to disgrace [or, humiliate] the Jews. So he set up a stone at the tower in the palace courtyard. On the stone was written this notice:….

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.