I assembled them at the river called Theras: The pronoun them refers to the Jewish exiles returning with Ezra to Judah. I assembled them may be rendered “I assembled the entire group” (Good News Bible), “I called this group together,” “I gathered all these men together,” or even “I brought everyone together” (Contemporary English Version). The river called Theras is referred to as “the river that runs to [the town of] Ahava” in the parallel passage of Ezra 8.15. It was probably a canal running into the Euphrates River. Babylonia had many canals cut through it for agricultural and defensive purposes, and in Ezra 8.15|prj:GNT92.EZR.8.15 Good News Bible refers to this river as a canal. We prefer the idea of a canal here. A canal is a man-made river or ditch to carry water where people want it. If the concept of a canal is too difficult for readers, “river” may certainly be used.

And we encamped there three days: The verb encamped means they stayed in tents; that is, they set up tents to stay in temporarily while they prepared for their journey. Some languages have special words meaning “to encamp” when people are staying or living in non-permanent housing, such as for hunting or fishing expeditions or when at war. Translators may need to say explicitly “and we set up our tents and stayed there three days.” Three days was the length of time that was needed to organize the group returning to Judah. In some languages it will be necessary to specify how many nights they stayed there instead of how many days. It can be assumed here that three days means that they slept there three nights and set out on their journey on the fourth day.

And I inspected them: The verb inspected is a bad choice of words; it implies that Ezra went among them looking at them to make sure they looked right or had proper equipment or such, like a military officer reviewing troops. The Greek verb here really means that he learned all he could about them. It is from the information he gained about their ancestries that he came to the realization in verse 42 that none of these people were priests or Levites.

We suggest the following models for this verse:

• “I called this group together at the Theras Canal [or, River]. We stayed there three days, while I learned all I could about them.

• “I gathered all these men together at the Theras Canal. We set up our tents and stayed there for three days, while I learned….

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.