Now after this I wept again and fasted seven days as before: See 2 Esd 5.20.

In order to complete the three weeks as I had been told: A period of three weeks has not been mentioned before. Most scholars believe that there was a fast before the first revelation that has dropped out of the text. We must simply translate what is in the text.

Good News Bible provides a helpful model for this verse. Another possibility is:

• After that I wept [or, mourned] and didn’t eat any food for seven days, as I had done before. In this way I fasted for the full three weeks as Uriel had commanded me to do.

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.