But they mocked his messengers may be rendered “But they scoffed at [or, made fun of] his messengers [or, prophets].” In this verse messengers and prophets refer to the same people.

And whenever the Lord spoke, they scoffed at his prophets: There is an ambiguity in the Greek text here which can result in two quite different interpretations. Whenever the Lord spoke is literally “in [or, on] a/the day the Lord spoke.” Most translations, including Good News Bible, follow the interpretation of Revised Standard Version for this clause. The Greek verb phrase translated scoffed at (literally “were scoffing at”) is an unusual construction. The use of the Greek periphrastic construction here points to the progressive or continuous nature of the scoffing. A good model for the last half of this verse is “Whenever the Lord spoke, they would scoff at his prophets” or “… would continue to scoff at his prophets.” However, New English Bible and Revised English Bible understand this sentence in another way. They take the Greek expression translated whenever to refer to a particular day when the Lord spoke, that is, when the Lord pronounced final judgment on his people. Here is New English Bible‘s rendering: “and on the very day when the Lord spoke they were scoffing at his prophets.” This interpretation certainly fits in better with the Greek verb form for scoffed at. At the end of the discussion on verse 52 we offer two models for verses 51-52, based on these two interpretations. We prefer the former interpretation, but translators may choose either one with ample justification.

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.