Just as a respectable and virtuous woman abhors a harlot …: A respectable and virtuous woman may be rendered “a respectable and moral woman” or more simply “a respectable [or, good] woman.” The verb abhors may be translated “despises” (Good News Bible) or even “hates” (Contemporary English Version).

So righteousness shall abhor iniquity, when she decks herself out: Here evil is likened to a prostitute trying to attract men with physical wiles. These clauses may be expressed as “so right living hates the attraction of evil” or even “so good people hate the attraction of evil [or, sinful people].”

And shall accuse her to her face may be rendered “and condemn it face-to-face” (Good News Bible).

When he comes who will defend him who searches out every sin on earth: This is a rather complicated grammatical construction. As Revised Standard Version stands, him who searches out every sin on earth is God, and he … who will defend him is the Messiah, who for this Christian writer and these Christian readers, would be Jesus. But there is a theological difficulty and a grammatical difficulty here. Theologically, it is a question of why God needs the Messiah to defend him. Grammatically, the Latin word exquirentem, which Revised Standard Version translates him who searches out can be understood as feminine in gender, referring back to righteousness, and not masculine, referring to God. Good News Bible follows this understanding by rendering the last half of verse 50 as “Righteousness will expose every sin in the world and condemn it face-to-face when her Defender [that is, the Messiah] comes.” We find this rendering convincing, and recommend it to translators.

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.