The mother who bore them says to them: Here Jerusalem is pictured as the mother of Israel (compare 2 Esd 10.7; see also Isa 50.1; 54.1; Jer 50.12; Gal 4.26). In many languages translators will have to use a simile here, beginning this verse as follows: “Jerusalem was like their mother, who gave birth to them….” Contemporary English Version is similar with “Jerusalem was like a mother who gave birth to my people.”

Go, my children, because I am a widow and forsaken: Jerusalem tells her children, the Israelites, to leave home, because she has become a widow left completely alone (compare Lam 1.1; Bar 4.19). The adjective forsaken may be rendered “lonely” (Contemporary English Version) or “completely alone” (Good News Bible). Contemporary English Version renders this sentence as “Go away, my children, because I am a lonely widow.”

An alternative model for this verse is:

• Jerusalem was like their mother, who brought them into the world, but now she says to them, ‘Go, my children. I am only a lonely widow.

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.