On the second night I had a dream: Contemporary English Version says “During the second night that I was in the city, I dreamed.” However, it is more likely that Ezra was in the field (see the comments on 2 Esd 10.58), so a better model is “During the second night, while I was in the field, I dreamed.”

And behold: The word behold is used often in dreams of the Old Testament to bring the reader into the wonder of the dreams. Here it is used in the same way, occurring eighteen times in this subsection. Some languages may have a similar feature in dreams. Other languages will omit most occurrences of this word for naturalness. Here Good News Bible renders behold as “I saw,” which some languages may find helpful.

There came up from the sea an eagle that had twelve feathered wings and three heads: Compare 2 Esd 13.1-3; Dan 7.1-3; Rev 13.1. All scholars agree that the eagle represents the Roman Empire, the threat to the Christian faith at the author’s time, although well after Ezra’s time. According to the usual practice of apocalyptic writing, we can also be sure that certain specific emperors are intended by the various heads and wings. There is much discussion about this in the scholarly literature, but since it is irrelevant for translation, we shall pass over it here. (For those interested, see Oesterley, pages 144-147.) An eagle is a large bird of prey known for its fierceness. This eagle is identified as a male bird (see the following verse). It is possible that in some languages translators will need to make this clear, while in others it will not be important. In most languages it will not be necessary to talk about feathered wings (so Good News Bible, Contemporary English Version). Readers will take it for granted that a bird’s wings have feathers.

Translators should study Good News Bible‘s excellent model for this verse. One based on Contemporary English Version is:

• During the second night, while I was in the field, I dreamed about an eagle flying out of the ocean. It had twelve wings and three heads.

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.