After seven days I dreamed a dream in the night: After seven days refers to the first night after seven days had passed (see 2 Esd 12.39, 51). Good News Bible makes this clear by rendering verse 1 as “The seven days passed, and the following night I had a dream.” Contemporary English Version has simply “Seven nights later, I dreamed.”

And behold, a wind arose from the sea and stirred up all its waves: Here begins the content of the dream. Good News Bible does well to introduce this sentence with “In my dream I saw….” This is the functional equivalent of the word behold. For the use of this word in dreams, see the comments on 2 Esd 11.1. Good News Bible does less well to speak about Ezra seeing a wind. What he saw was the result of the wind, although for some languages “I saw a wind” may be natural speech. Contemporary English Version says “I saw a storm,” which other languages may find helpful.

An alternative model for verses 1-2 is:

• 1 Seven nights later [or, On the seventh night after this] I dreamed that 2 I saw a storm at sea, stirring up high waves.

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.