This verse contains a quotation within a quotation. Good News Translation restructures by making the embedded quotation an indirect quotation. Good News Translation also breaks up this long Hebrew sentence into shorter sentences and brings information forward from verse 49 by saying “listen to your people’s prayers” and “hear their prayers.”

They lay it to heart is literally “they bring back on to their heart.” This expression has been rendered in more idiomatic English as “they come to their senses” (New Jerusalem Bible, New Revised Standard Version) and “they have a change of heart” (Revised English Bible). New American Bible is content to translate it as “they repent.”

The three verbs have sinned, have acted perversely, and [have acted] wickedly render three different Hebrew verbs. The first verb is a general term meaning “to sin.” The second verb comes from a root meaning “to twist” or “to bend.” With reference to the law, it means “to act perversely,” that is, they behave in a way that deliberately distorts what the law says they should do. The third verb means “to do wrong” or “to behave wickedly.” There does not appear to be any great distinction in meaning among the three terms; and it will be noted that Good News Translation uses only two words, “sinful” and “wicked,” instead of three.

The embedded quotation in the last half of this verse may be more naturally rendered as indirect discourse in many languages. In such cases Good News Translation provides a possible model. Another model is found in Contemporary English Version, which says “they may feel sorry for what they did and ask your forgiveness.”

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