Good News Bible and Contemporary English Version start a new section here. But we recommend beginning the new section at verse 21.

So I fasted seven days, mourning and weeping, as Uriel the angel had commanded me: See verse 13; compare 2 Esd 6.35. Fasted may be rendered “went without food” or even “did not eat food.” Some languages will have appropriate words for both mourning and weeping. However, their meaning is almost the same. So some translators will wish to combine them and render the first clause of this verse in a similar way to Contemporary English Version, which says “I cried and went without eating for the next seven days.”

Here are two possible models for this verse:

• For the next seven days I fasted, mourned, and wept, just as the angel Uriel had told me to do.

• I cried and did not eat any food for the next seven days, just as the angel Uriel had commanded.

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.