For our sins have risen higher than our heads, and our mistakes have mounted up to heaven from the times of our fathers: The logical connector For may be left implied (so Good News Bible). Our sins have risen higher than our heads and our mistakes have mounted up to heaven are both examples of hyperbole, making a point by overstatement. Ezra emphasizes that he and his people have sinned greatly. In the first hyperbole he pictures their sins as water that has become too deep for them to stand in. It may be rendered “We are drowning in our sins” or “Our sins have swept over us like a flood” (similarly Contemporary English Version). In the second hyperbole he pictures their mistakes as a growing plant or perhaps a mountain that grows taller with each of their misdeeds. It is possible to combine these two clauses as Contemporary English Version does with “Since the time of our ancestors, the sins and mistakes of our people have swept over us like a flood that reaches up to the heavens.”

And we are in great sin to this day: Here Ezra confesses that he and his people are still sinning greatly. Contemporary English Version says “And we are still committing terrible sins.”

Good News Bible provides a helpful model for verses 75-76 that does not combine them. Contemporary English Version combines them well. Another possible model that does this is:

• We are drowning in our sins. From the times of our ancestors our sins have been piling up like a mountain. Even now we just keep on sinning.

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.