Take again your full number, O Zion, and conclude the list of your people …: In verses 34b-39 Ezra addresses the peoples of the world, using second person plural pronouns, but here in verses 40-41 he addresses Zion, using singular pronouns. Zion, which is another name for Jerusalem, refers to the Church in this context. The name Zion should be used here, but a footnote may be added to indicate that the Church is in view (compare the comments on “Mother” in verse 15). Take again your full number … and conclude the list of your people means the Church must claim as her own, the whole number of her people. According to 2 Esd 4.36, that is a limited, definite number, though it is not specified. The adverb again is misleading and may be omitted.

Who are clothed in white may be translated “who are wearing white clothing.” See the previous verse. Good News Bible omits this clause, but it should be kept.

Who have fulfilled the law of the Lord may be expressed as “who have kept [or, obeyed] the Lord’s commandments.”

The number of your children, whom you desired, is full: This clause repeats some of the information in the previous verse. It may be rendered “The number of children you wanted is complete” (similarly Contemporary English Version). All these saved people are guests at the Lord’s banquet.

Beseech the Lord’s power: The Latin expression here can be translated “Pray that the Lord’s kingdom may come” (New English Bible; similarly Good News Bible). But in this vision that Ezra is showing the world’s peoples, the Lord’s kingdom has already arrived. Moreover the Latin term translated “kingdom” is not the usual word used in the phrase “the Lord’s kingdom.” More likely Contemporary English Version is right in taking this clause to mean simply “pray to the Lord.” We suggest rendering beseech the Lord’s power that … as “pray to the Lord that in his power he….”

That your people, who have been called from the beginning, may be made holy: For who have been called from the beginning, see Rom 8.29-30. This clause may be rendered “whom God has chosen as his own before he created the world.” Be made holy means to become God’s people.

Here is an alternative model combining verses 40 and 41:

• “Jerusalem [or, Zion],* here are every one of your children who kept the Lord’s commands, and who now are clothed in [or, wearing] white garments. Take them now—the list of those you wanted is complete—and pray to the Lord that in his power he will make them holy, these people whom he chose as his own before he [even] created the world.”
* Jerusalem: the ancient reader would have understood this to refer to the Church.

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.