When the seventh month came: The seventh month was known by the Babylonian name Tishri. It corresponds to mid-September to mid-October. For the Jews this was the most important month of the year with special religious celebrations: the New Year Festival (also called Festival of Trumpets) on the first day (Lev 23.23-25; Num 29.1-6), the Day of Atonement on the tenth day (Lev 16.29-31), and the Festival of Shelters beginning the fifteenth day and lasting eight days (Lev 23.39-43). Also every seventh year there was to be a proclamation of the Law during the Festival of Shelters (see Deut 31.10-13). It was considered a favorable time to begin a new project, and it was at this time that the Jews assembled in Jerusalem. This clause may be rendered “Seven months after the Jews left Babylonia,” since verse 6 tells us that the departure took place in the first month.

And the sons of Israel were each in his own home means the Israelites were settled in their hometowns. It took six months for the people to make places to live in and to work out their living arrangements. Once this was done, they were able to gather in Jerusalem and start a community project, such as rebuilding the altar. The sons of Israel may be rendered “the Jews.” The Greek phrase translated in his own home (literally “in their own”) is not as specific as the English. There is in fact no noun in the phrase, and the implied noun could as easily be “towns” (Good News Bible; compare Ezra 3.1). If so, the towns would be in the territory of Judah, and translators could add this information by rendering this clause as “they settled down in their own towns in [the land of] Judah.”

They gathered as one man in the square before the first gate toward the east: They gathered as one man means the people came together with a common purpose, intent on the same thing. Contemporary English Version specifies that “They met to worship together,” which may not be the intention. The English phrase as one man may be misleading. The Greek word here means only “with a common purpose,” and the text does not say that all the Jews came together in Jerusalem. Indeed, we must assume that this is not a general gathering of the Jewish population, but only of certain people with certain tasks (see verses 48-49). Otherwise, the narrative will appear disconnected and difficult to follow. All this verse says is that there was a Jewish assembly of some kind for a particular purpose, which everyone present was intent on accomplishing. Who the participants were is told in the next verse. Nothing is said about the presence of other people as onlookers. The Greek word for square refers to an open area in a city. It was not necessarily shaped like a square, nor does the Greek say that. It was a place where people assembled for public meetings such as this. Not enough is known about the Jerusalem of Ezra’s day to determine exactly what is meant by before the first gate toward the east. This phrase could refer to either “in front of the first gate on the east side of the Temple area” (Good News Bible) or “just inside the first gate on the eastern side of the city” (Contemporary English Version). According to the interpretation in Good News Bible, it would have been the in front of the eastern gate on the outer wall of the Temple compound (so Talshir, pages 293-295). According to the interpretation in Contemporary English Version, it would have been in front of the first gate of the wall of Jerusalem, which was called the Water Gate (so Myers, page 66; see Neh 8.1). Translators may follow either interpretation here. This whole clause may be rendered “Then some men came together with a common purpose [or, with one mind] on the east side of Jerusalem, in the open area near the first [Temple] gate.”

Here is a model for the whole verse:

• Seven months after the Jews left Babylonia, they were settled [or, they settled] in their own towns in Judah. Then some men came together with a common purpose [or, one mind] on the east side of Jerusalem, in the open area near the first [Temple] gate.

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.