Protect the old and the young within your walls: The young refers to children, who like old people can be helpless, not to young people old enough to take care of themselves. Within your walls means “inside your cities.” So we may render this verse as “Protect the old people and children within your walls” or “Make sure that old people and children are safe in your cities.”

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.