Both Good News Bible and Contemporary English Version begin a new paragraph here, which we recommend.

But they said: Good News Bible translates said as “answered,” since the Jews are responding to the challenge of the king’s soldiers. Good News Bible‘s insertion of the clause “they answered” into the middle of the quotation is good English narrative style, but many translators may feel that the order in Revised Standard Version is better by beginning with “But the Jews answered” (similarly Contemporary English Version).

We will not come out, nor will we do what the king commands and so profane the sabbath day: To profane the sabbath day means to render it ordinary rather than sacred by violating the Sabbath law in some respect. Good News Bible somewhat loses the logical connection between doing the king’s commands and profaning the Sabbath when it translates the Sabbath clause as independent. New Jerusalem Bible offers a better model with “We refuse to come out, and we will not obey the king’s orders and profane the Sabbath day.” Contemporary English Version is also better with “We’re not coming out! And we refuse to break the laws of the Sabbath by obeying the king’s orders!” Another approach is “We will not profane the Sabbath by coming out to obey the king’s command.”

There is no specific prohibition in biblical law against fighting on the Sabbath, but the idea here seems to be that the very act of coming out from hiding would be a violation of Sabbath law (see Exo 16.29). The Mishnah (second century a.d.) forbids walking more than a set distance or carrying things from one place to another on the Sabbath (Shabbath 7.2), and specifically says “A man may not go out [on the Sabbath] with a sword or a bow or a shield or a club or a spear” (Shabbath 6.4). Similar regulations are also found in various documents from the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are even closer to the time of the Maccabees.

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.