So they trusted him; but he seized sixty of them and killed them in one day: The pronouns him and he refer to Bacchides. He, of course, did not literally seize the sixty men himself—his soldiers did that—but translators can speak of him arresting them, as do Good News Bible, Contemporary English Version, New English Bible, and Goldstein. The problem with the verb “arrest” is that it suggests that they were being apprehended by law officers for some violation of law. Here a military officer was capturing civilians not so that he could judge them and punish them, but simply in order to kill them. Perhaps “captured” or “rounded up” would fit better. So the first half of this verse may be rendered “So they trusted him. But later he captured sixty of them and killed them in a single day.”

In accordance with the word which was written: The Greek is awkward here; it is literally “according to the word that he wrote it.” Most manuscripts, in an attempt to solve the problem, say something like “according to the word that the prophet wrote.” However, the meaning of the Greek text is clear enough. “He wrote” has to refer to whoever wrote the following lines. (Goldstein believes that the original text was “in accordance with the verse which he himself wrote,” referring to Alcimus. He argues that Alcimus was the author of Psa 79.) Since the following quotation is from the Psalms, it is appropriate to say “As the scripture says” (Good News Bible) or “This is what the Scriptures said would happen” (Contemporary English Version).

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.