Some of the Levitical priests and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the former house, came to the building of this one with outcries and loud weeping: As in verse 56, Levitical priests is better rendered “priests and Levites” (Contemporary English Version). For heads of fathers’ houses, see the comments on 1 Esdras 5.1, even though the Greek phrase there is a little different. The former house refers to the Temple built by Solomon, which the Babylonians had destroyed when they captured Jerusalem.

The Greek text of this verse is clear that the old men wept because they remembered the magnificence of the old Temple, and saw that the building going up could not compare with it. Contemporary English Version has “Many of the older priests and Levites and heads of families had seen the former temple, and they cried aloud.” But here is another possible model:

• Some of the priests, Levites, and heads of families were old enough to have seen the first Temple. When they saw this new building going up [or, being built], they wept, and cried aloud.

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.