And by the action of the Lord he was overcome by so pleasant and deep a sleep … : There is a contrast implied here between the pleasant and deep sleep of the king and the anguish of the Jews in the stadium. He slept so soundly that he never gave the orders to let the elephants loose. We may begin this verse with “The Lord caused the king to sleep so soundly [deep] and so calmly [pleasant] that….” The addition to the text here noted in the Revised Standard Version footnote may be ignored.

That he quite failed in his lawless purpose and was completely frustrated in his inflexible plan means God prevented (completely frustrated) the king from carrying out his evil plan (lawless purpose). For inflexible see the comments on 3 Macc 5.1.

Here are possible models for this verse:

• The Lord caused the king to sleep so soundly and calmly that his evil plan to kill the Jews, that plan he was so determined on, was not carried out.

• The Lord caused Philopator to sleep soundly and calmly. So, although he was determined to kill all the Jews, he was unable to carry out this evil plan.

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.