But since they adorned their style of life with the good deeds of upright people: Here the author manages to say three times in the same clause that the Jews lived upright lives (adorned, good, upright), and did not make a practice of doing things that would cause non-Jews to look down on them.

They were established in good repute among all men has to be taken as a general overstatement, since in verse 6 we learn of certain people who did indeed look down on the Jews. Contemporary English Version solves the problem by saying “Most people respected the Jews.” This is a good approach, but another is to make it clear in verses 6-7 that some people in Egypt were an exception to this general rule. So we may render this verse as follows:

• But they lived in such a way, doing good deeds, that they had a good reputation among people everywhere.

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.