And they pulled down the house, and burned it: The pronoun they refers to the Babylonians. Pulled down the house may be rendered “destroyed the Temple.”

And carried the people away captive to Babylon may be expressed as “and they captured the people and took them as prisoners to Babylonia.”

Here is an alternative model for this verse:

• The Babylonians tore down [or, destroyed] the Temple and burned it. Then they took the people as prisoners to Babylonia.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 1-2 Esdras. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2019. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.