Sacrifices to them may be touched by women in menstruation or at childbirth: Women in Israel were considered ritually unclean during their monthly periods or in the weeks following childbirth, and as a consequence, they were forbidden to take part in communal worship (see Lev 12.1-8). Contemporary English Version has “Women who are having their monthly periods or who have just given birth are even allowed to touch the sacrifices offered to these idols.”

Since you know by these things that they are not gods, do not fear them: This is the third occurrence of the refrain. It is very slightly different in wording from verse 16 and even more slightly different from verse 23. Good News Translation translates all three exactly the same, and is quite justified in doing so. For those translators who want to preserve the difference here, however subtle, it is in the idea Since you know … do not fear them. We may express this by saying “You can obviously tell from all this that these are not gods, so do not fear them.” For fear see the comments on verse 4.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.