The whole earth calls upon truth, and heaven blesses her: Heaven here refers to the sky, as in verse 34. The earth and the sky are personified here, in such a way as to show that both are reliable, that reliability is a distinguishing characteristic of both. Good News Bible interprets the earth as referring to the people on earth, but we cannot follow it, since the point here is that the earth and sky are reliable and people are not. A possible model for this sentence is “The whole earth shouts ‘Reliability!’ The sky pronounces a blessing on ‘Reliability.’ ”

All God’s works quake and tremble: As the Revised Standard Version footnote says, the Greek text does not read All God’s works, but only “All the works,” which can just as easily mean “All the deeds,” and that is what we believe it means here. In contrast to the stability of the earth and the sky, human deeds are very shaky and unstable.

And with him there is nothing unrighteous: There is a textual problem with the phrase with him. Some Greek manuscripts have “with her,” referring to “reliability,” and we believe that is the text that should be followed. Unrighteous in this context is the opposite of “reliability,” namely “unreliability” or “something that cannot be trusted.”

Here are possible models for this verse:

• The whole earth shouts ‘Reliability!’ The sky pronounces a blessing on ‘Reliability.’ But human deeds are shaky and unstable. But where reliability is, nothing unreliable can exist.

• The whole earth and the sky are reliable by nature, but human deeds….

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.