Again, on the second day, thou didst create the spirit of the firmament …: See Gen 1.6-8. The word Again is better rendered “Then,” or translators may simply start this verse with “On the second day” (Good News Bible). The Latin pronoun for him, which could be either masculine or neuter, refers back to the spirit of the firmament. This spirit probably refers to an angelic being, which Good News Bible makes explicit (so also New English Bible). There is a pre-Christian document called Jubilees which in 2.2 speaks of “the angels of the spirit of fire, and the angels of the spirit of the winds, and the angels of the spirit of the clouds and darkness and snow and hail and frost.” This is fairly good authority for assuming an angel is in view here. Stone (page 185) refers to the Jubilees passage as relevant, although he translates literally. “The angel of the sky” (Good News Bible) may be a difficult concept, but it is certainly clearer than the spirit of the firmament or Contemporary English Version‘s “the spirit of the dome.” From the Latin text we cannot determine whether “a spirit” or the spirit is meant. We prefer “a spirit,” so a possible model for this whole clause is “Then on the second day you created an angel for [or, of] the sky.”

And didst command him to divide and separate the waters, that one part might move upward and the other part remain beneath: This last half of the verse refers to the ancient idea that a “firmament” or “dome,” something hard, held back the water above the earth (which is blue like the sea and comes down as rain) from the water on earth.

Here is an alternative model for this verse:

• “Then on the second day you created an angel for [or, of] the sky, and ordered him to divide the waters into two parts. He moved one part above the earth and left the other part on the earth.

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.