You most foolish of women, do you not see our mourning, and what has happened to us?: The emphasis in this sentence is on the pronouns our and us, which include the woman. If an actor were reading it, those are the words he would emphasize. To Ezra it seems silly for the woman to be mourning so much over the loss of her son, when the Jewish people have so much more to mourn about. You most foolish of women may be rendered “You are the most foolish woman I have ever met” (similarly Good News Bible), “You must be the most foolish woman in the world!” (Contemporary English Version), or even “You are certainly the stupidest woman I have ever met.” Do you not see our mourning, and what has happened to us are two rhetorical questions, which may be rendered as strong statements (see the second model below). Here are alternative models for this verse:

• “You are certainly the most foolish woman I have ever met. Don’t you understand what we [inclusive] are mourning about or what has happened to our people?

• “Mourning? You foolish woman, look at what has happened to our people! Look at our mourning!

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.