He ceased speaking: After the long speech, the translator will do well to use the name “Zerubbabel” (Good News Bible, Contemporary English Version) instead of the pronoun He to remind the reader who is speaking. This clause may be rendered “Zerubbabel then finished speaking” or even “When Zerubbabel ended his speech.”

Then all the people shouted, and said may be translated simply “everyone shouted” (Contemporary English Version).

Great is truth, and strongest of all!: Truth, that is, reliability, is recognized as the most powerful of all forces by the whole assembly. This statement is important to the story, because in the next subsection Zerubbabel is going to put the king in a difficult situation. The king has promised to rebuild Jerusalem. Zerubbabel will remind him of this, and without having to say it, places the king in the position of having to fulfill his promise in order to be reliable.

Here are alternative models for this verse:

• Zerubbabel then ended his speech. All the people then shouted, “Reliability! It is great! It is the most powerful of all forces!”

• When Zerubbabel finished speaking, all the people shouted, “That’s right! Being reliable [or, Reliability] is the most powerful thing in the world! To be great is to be reliable.”

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.