Good News Bible places a paragraph break here, but it is not necessary.

Then the fear and dread of them fell upon all the people, for they said: Good News Bible expands the conjunction Then into “When this happened,” making the connection with the massacre of verse 16 a bit closer. The Greek word translated dread indicates physical signs of fear, such as shaking. The nouns fear and dread may be combined by using a strong verb such as “terrify.” Good News Bible says “were afraid,” which is weak. “Trembling with fear” (Contemporary English Version) is better. The pronoun them refers to Alcimus and Bacchides, which Good News Bible makes clear by naming them. Other languages may find this helpful. All the people refers to all the Jews, not necessarily just those who were nearby at the time of the massacre. Alternative models for the first half of this verse are “When this happened, all the Jews became terrified of Alcimus and Bacchides. They said…” and “All the Jews became terrified [or, trembled with fear] when they heard what Alcimus and Bacchides had done. They said….”

There is no truth or justice in them: Good News Bible says “They don’t know what truth or justice means,” which is a forceful English idiomatic expression. A better model is “We cannot believe anything those men say or count on them [or, expect them] to do what is right.”

For they have violated the agreement and the oath which they swore: The agreement and the oath refer to the same thing, the promise given in verse 15. The two words can easily be translated as one by rendering this clause as follows: “They have broken the solemn promise that they made.”

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.