This verse contains a quotation within a quotation. Good News Translation restructures it 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 39 by saying “listen to your people’s prayers” and “hear their prayers.”

Yet renders the common Hebrew conjunction. Revised Standard Version takes verse 37 as expressing a slight contrast of the people’s behavior from their negative behavior in verse 36. New Revised Standard Version takes this conjunction as introducing a temporal transition, so it uses the connector “then.” Either interpretation is acceptable.

They lay it to heart is literally “they turn back in their heart.” The pronoun it is added by Revised Standard Version. This expression has been rendered in more idiomatic English as “they come to their senses” (New Revised Standard Version, God’s Word, New Jerusalem Bible) or “they have a change of heart” (New International Version).

In the land to which they have been carried captive: See the comments on the previous verse.

Repent translates a different form of the same Hebrew rendered lay at the beginning of this verse, and the meanings of the two are very similar. New Living Translation translates them together as “they may turn to you again in repentance.”

Make supplication to thee: See the comments on verse 24.

In the land of their captivity refers to the land into which the people of Israel are taken by their captors. Good News Translation combines this phrase with in the land to which they have been carried captive, saying simply “there in that land,” since it has already been mentioned in the previous verse as the place where they are prisoners.

We have sinned, and have acted perversely and wickedly: 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, so some languages may combine them; for example, Good News Translation uses only two words, “sinful” and “wicked,” instead of three.

This embedded quotation will have to be made into indirect discourse in many languages. Good News Translation provides one possible model for doing so. But it is also possible to translate the last half of this verse as “They will be sorry and pray to you in the land where they are held as prisoners, acknowledging their sin and admitting that they have done wrong and acted wickedly.”

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 .