But this became known to them, and they sent a general against the Greeks and attacked them: The reference is probably to the destruction of the city of Corinth in 146 b.c., after which Greece became a Roman province. This was well after the death of Judas Maccabeus, but the writer uses it as an example of Roman power. A model that combines these clauses with the previous verse is “When the Romans found out that the Greeks were planning to attack and destroy them, they sent a general to fight against them.”

Many of them were wounded and fell: The destruction and enslavement of Corinth was among the worst atrocities committed by Rome. For the verbs wounded and fell, Good News Bible has simply “killed.” Fell means “killed,” but obviously everyone who was killed was also wounded. There is nothing wrong with saying “wounded and killed,” unless it sounds peculiar in a language. An alternative model for this clause is “His [the general’s] army [or, soldiers] killed many of them.”

And the Romans took captive their wives and children: The Romans refers to the Roman general and his army, so this clause may be rendered “and then captured their wives and children [or, families].”

They plundered them: The Roman army took all the valuable possessions of the Greeks.

Conquered the land: New American Bible expresses this clause well with “took possession of their land.”

Tore down their strongholds: For strongholds see the comments on 1Macc 1.2.

And enslaved them to this day may be expressed as “and still enslave them today.” To this day refers to the time of the author, not our present time.

A model that combines verses 9 and 10 is:

• When the Romans found out that the Greeks were planning to attack and destroy them, they sent a general to fight against them. His army killed many of them, and then captured their wives and children. The Romans took all their valuable possessions. After they had conquered Greece, they tore down its fortresses. Greece is a slave of Rome to this day.

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.