He placed Alcimus in charge of the country: Bacchides gave Alcimus authority to govern Judea. Good News Bible‘s model may be slightly altered to read “Bacchides put Alcimus in control of Judea.”

And left with him a force to help him: Alcimus was left in Judea with some troops that he could use to enforce his rule.

Then Bacchides went back to the king: In many languages it will be helpful to identify the place where the king was; for example, “then Bacchides returned from Jerusalem to King Demetrius in Antioch.”

Alternative models for this verse are:

• Bacchides put Judea under the control of Alcimus, leaving some soldiers there to help him. He then returned to King Demetrius in Antioch.

• Bacchides returned from Jerusalem to King Demetrius in Antioch and left Alcimus with a group of soldiers to control Judea.

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.