Woe to those who are choked by their sins and overwhelmed by their iniquities, as a field is choked with underbrush and its path overwhelmed with thorns, so that no one can pass through!: The picture here is of a field that has grown wild (choked with underbrush and its path overwhelmed with thorns), so that no one can walk through. In the same way sinners are choked by their sins and overwhelmed by their iniquities. God will destroy such people. For the word Woe, see the comments on 2 Esd 2.8; for thorns see verse 32. Path is a more likely reading than “seed” (Revised Standard Version footnote). An alternative model for this verse is:

• Some people are choked with sin like an open unused field, choked thick with underbrush; they are overwhelmed by sin like a pathway blocked by thornbushes. Such people are doomed [or, God will punish such people].

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.