And again we prayed to our Lord about these things means, of course, that Ezra and his group again asked God for his protection.

And we found him very merciful: Only after the journey was complete could Ezra say this, but he is speaking these words at the end of their journey to Jerusalem. We found him very merciful is not precisely the sense of the Greek text here. Good News Bible has “he answered our prayers,” which is adequate but not quite right either. The idea in the Greek is more that they depended on God and God did not disappoint them. Here is a model of the verse that expresses this clause better:

• So again, we prayed to our Lord to protect us, and he did not let us down [or, disappoint/fail] us. He was merciful to us.

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.