And they burned down the house of God …: The pronoun they refers to “Nebuchadnezzar’s troops” (Contemporary English Version) or “Nebuchadnezzar and his army” (New Century Version). Good News Translation uses the pronoun “He,” referring to Nebuchadnezzar, but there seems to be no convincing reason for following Good News Translation here. The Hebrew text has the third person plural pronoun.

Broke down the wall of Jerusalem may be rendered “tore down the walls of Jerusalem” (New Living Translation). The city walls were destroyed so that Jerusalem was no longer protected.

Burned all its palaces with fire: Burned … with fire will be considered redundant in some languages where a single verb will be sufficient to communicate the meaning. The Hebrew word for palaces is not found elsewhere in 1-2 Chronicles but occurs frequently in the Prophets. It usually refers to fortresses or palaces, that is, large residences or ornate structures as opposed to ordinary houses. However, it is difficult to imagine ordinary dwellings being spared when the larger, better built structures were burned. But the point of this clause is that they “destroyed every important building in the city” (Contemporary English Version).

Destroyed all its precious vessels: For precious vessels, see the comments at verse 10. Here it refers to all the valuable objects in Jerusalem.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Chronicles, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2014. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .