Whose land lies in lumps of pitch and heaps of ashes: This clause describes the sites of the ruined cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Pitch or “tar” (Good News Bible) is a black sticky mineral substance. If translators do not have a word for pitch in their language, they may use a descriptive phrase such as “thick/heavy oil,” or they may transliterate the word, based on its form in an international language. This clause may be rendered “These cities are now nothing but lumps of tar and piles of ashes,” “Their land now lies covered with lumps of tar and heaps of ashes” (Good News Bible), or “Their land is now buried under tar and ashes” (similarly Contemporary English Version).

So will I do to those who have not listened to me: God will punish any disobedient nation in the same way as he punished Sodom and Gomorrah. Contemporary English Version says “That is how I punish people who disobey me.”

Says the Lord Almighty: See the comments on 2 Esd 1.14-15. Good News Bible omits this clause, but it is better to keep it. Contemporary English Version does so by saying “I, the Lord All-Powerful have spoken.”

Alternative models for this verse are:

• Those cities are now nothing but lumps of tar and piles of ashes. I will do the same to any nation who does not obey me.” That is what the Lord Almighty said.

• Their land is now buried under tar and piles of ashes….

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.