And by plots and demagoguery and uprisings: Plots are “secret plans” (Contemporary English Version). By plots may be rendered “These people plotted [or, made secret plans] against the Jews.” In this context the Greek word for demagoguery refers to “agitations” (New English Bible), causing disturbances among the people by urging them to do certain things. Uprisings refers to the same idea, so demagoguery and uprisings may be translated “created disturbances.”

They prevented the completion of the building as long as King Cyrus lived may be expressed as “they stopped the Jews from working on the Temple for the rest of King Cyrus’ life.”

And they were kept from building for two years, until the reign of Darius: Here the author may have misunderstood a reference to the work on the Temple stopping “until the second year of the reign of Darius” in Ezra 4.24. According to Ezra, the work on the Temple stopped from the time of this incident, in the second year of Cyrus’ reign (538 B.C.; see Ezra 3.8) until the second year of Darius’ reign (520 B.C.; see Ezra 4.24), a time span of seventeen years, hardly two. For this sentence Good News Bible has “The work was halted until Darius became emperor, two years later.” Good News Bible‘s translation implies that work began again as soon as Darius became king, but the Greek does not say this, only that Darius, not Cyrus, was king at the time the work was begun again.

We suggest the following models for this verse:

• These people plotted against the Jews and created disturbances so violent that they brought work on the Temple to a stop [or, stopped the Jews from working on the Temple]. It did not begin again until two years later, when King Cyrus was dead and Darius was king.

• These people made secret plans against the Jews and caused great riots that stopped them from working on the Temple. The work did not begin….

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.