And in like manner the waves of the sea also made a plan and said: This quote frame may be rendered “At the same time the waves of the sea also made a plan, and said to each other.”

Come, let us go up and subdue the forest of the plain: Good News Bible says simply “Let’s conquer the woods.” The verbs Come and go up are used to initiate an action, so Good News Bible leaves them untranslated (compare verse 14). In this context the verb subdue means to “flood” (Contemporary English Version). The forest of the plain may be rendered simply “the forest” (Contemporary English Version; see the comments on verse 13).

So that there also we may gain more territory for ourselves: More territory may be translated “more space” or “more room.”

Contemporary English Version provides the following helpful model for this verse:

• At exactly the same time, the waves of the sea were saying to each other, “Let’s flood the forest, so we can have more room.”

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.