But thou didst leave one of them, Noah with his household, and all the righteous who have descended from him: There are two translation problems here. First, the author says God spared one, but immediately goes on to say there were others (his household). Second, the righteous are said to descend from Noah, not from his household. Of course, the unrighteous also descended from Noah, but that is not the writer’s point. Nor does he want the household included as the ancestors of the righteous, since Ham was not a righteous character (see Gen 9.20-27). The ultimate meaning for the last half of this verse is that Noah may be considered the ancestor of all righteous people. The following model of this verse tries to avoid the problems and state the essential meaning:

• But you spared one family, that of Noah, the ancestor of all righteous people.

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.