And a fire will go forth from his wrath: In anger God will send a fire.

And will consume the foundations of the earth, and the sinners, like straw that is kindled: This fire will destroy the earth and the sinners on it. For the foundations of the earth, see the comments on 2 Esd 6.15; for straw see 2 Esd 1.33. Like straw that is kindled may be rendered simply “like straw” (Good News Bible).

As in verse 12, God is referred to in third person. Here the pronoun his refers to him. Revised Standard Version translates literally by keeping this third person reference. Another approach would be to recast this verse so that it become God’s speech, as in Good News Bible. Contemporary English Version also does this as follows:

• My anger has become hot as fire and has burned the foundations of the earth, wiping out sinners as if they were straw.

We prefer to keep the third person reference to God by setting this verse apart as a separate paragraph, and placing it in parentheses as follows:

• (When God becomes angry, a fire will burn the earth to its foundations. In that fire sinners will vanish like burning straw.)

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.