Pillar: The traditional Hebrew text has the plural “pillars” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, New Century Version, Bible en français courant). Both Revised Standard Version (also New Revised Standard Version) and Good News Translation follow the ancient translations in Greek, Latin and Syriac in reading the singular, as does New International Version with “sacred stone.” The textual evidence favors the reading “pillars,” and this is the recommendation of Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament, which gives a {C} rating to the Masoretic Text. The context, however, seems to require either “sacred pole” or “sacred poles” since interpreters usually assume that a pillar (“stele” in New American Bible and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible) or pillars would have been made of stone and would have been difficult to burn. For this reason some interpreters change the Hebrew to read “Asherah” instead of “pillars” because they see the sacred poles of Asherah as made of wood (see 1 Kgs 14.15), and this is the basis for renderings such as “sacred pole” (Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible) and “sacred posts” (footnote in New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh).

But Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament correctly comments that we don’t know whether some pillars were made of wood. Even if the pillars were made of stone, they may have been heated in fire and then destroyed by having cold water thrown on them to break them (as Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament suggests, and similarly a footnote in Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente). Translators are therefore advised to translate the Masoretic Text. For more discussion on pillar, see 1 Kgs 14.23.

Burned it: The pronoun it would presumably refer to the sacred poles or pillars just mentioned. But New American Bible somehow takes it to mean “the shrine” from which the “stele of Baal” had been taken. This interpretation, however, is not recommended, although there is no contradiction in New American Bible with the next verse, which says that “they smashed the stele of Baal.” Since the Masoretic Text says that “pillars” were brought out, the singular pronoun it here in Hebrew refers to each pillar individually. In some languages it will be more natural to translate the singular pronoun as plural, saying “burned them.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .