Translators may certainly follow Good News Bible by translating this verse as indirect speech, but we think it gains vigor by being rendered as a direct quotation.

Grant us peace is literally “Give us the right hand” (compare 1Macc 6.58), which means to make a truce (so Good News Bible).

And make the Jews stop fighting against us and our city: It is not necessary to express both us and our city in translation, since the situation is quite clear to the reader.

The models of Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible for this verse are a bit too formal for these circumstances. It would be appropriate to have a more frantic tone, such as:

• “Stop the fighting! Tell the Jews to stop attacking us!”

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.