And said to them …: The four Israelite leaders give the same warning here as the prophet Oded ( verses 10-11).

You shall not bring the captives in here may be rendered “You must not bring these captives into our country” (Revised English Bible).

For you propose to bring upon us guilt against the LORD in addition to our present sins and guilt is literally “for to the guilt of the LORD upon us you are saying to add to our sins and our guilty deeds.” This clause gives the reason why the Israelites soldiers should not keep the Judean prisoners. Keeping the prisoners would bring more guilt on the Israelites. New Century Version says “If you do, we will be guilty of sin against the LORD, and that will make our sin and guilt even worse.”

For our guilt is already great: This clause stresses the magnitude of Israel’s present guilt. In many languages it may be better to omit the logical connector For (so New Living Translation, New Century Version, Revised English Bible).

And there is fierce wrath against Israel: Fierce wrath renders the same Hebrew expression as in verse 11 (see the comments there). The wrath is the wrath of God. La Bible Pléiade capitalizes the French word for “wrath” to show that this is God’s wrath, but a better solution is to say “the LORD’s wrath.” A literal translation of this clause may incorrectly suggest that Israel refers to a group of people different from those who speak. Parole de Vie makes it clear that they are the same people by saying “and the LORD is very angry at us, the people of the North.”

If the direct discourse of this verse has to be made into indirect discourse, the following model may be helpful:

• They told them that they must not bring the prisoners to Israel because they had already sinned against the LORD and made him so angry that he was going to punish Israel. And now they wanted to add to their guilt and make God even more angry.

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 .