If men gather gold and silver or any other beautiful thing: For gold and silver, see the comments on 1 Esd 2.6-7. The Greek expression for beautiful thing refers to precious objects, valuable because of their beauty—objects of art. It is their beauty rather than their value that is in focus here. This whole clause may be rendered “Men may accumulate silver or gold or other beautiful things” (Good News Bible), “A man might have a lot of gold and silver and other valuable things” (Contemporary English Version), or “Men may have gold and silver and beautiful objects [of art].”

And then see a woman lovely in appearance and beauty: New English Bible renders a woman lovely in appearance and beauty as “a woman with a lovely face and figure” (similarly Good News Bible). This model is acceptable, but the Greek text here is not necessarily that specific. The noun for appearance does refer to “form,” but it could refer to the form of the face as well as the body. The Greek for this clause is literally “and they see one woman lovely in form and beauty.” Most translations fail to convey the idea of “one woman.” Good News Bible renders this clause as “but if they see a woman with a pretty face or a good figure.” A better model is “but if they see one woman with a pretty face and a good figure.”

They let all those things go, and gape at her, and with open mouths stare at her, and all prefer her to gold or silver or any other beautiful thing: Zerubbabel says that a man, captivated by the beauty of one woman, will give up all his wealth. In fact, he says all men are like this. Contemporary English Version combines gape at her and with open mouths stare at her, saying simply “stare at her.” The repetition here is emphatic, so it would be better to say “stare at her with open mouths.” If staring with an open mouth does not convey the idea of astonishment in a language, translators should use an alternative idiom for this idea.

A model that combines verses 18 and 19 is:

• Men may have gold and silver and beautiful objects [of art], but they will give up all of that wealth for one woman, if she is really good-looking [or, beautiful]. They will stare at her with their mouths wide open. They would rather have such a woman than gold or silver or any beautiful object [of art].

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.