O Adam, what have you done? For though it was you who sinned, the fall was not yours alone, but ours also who are your descendants: Compare 2 Esd 3.7, 21; 4.30. The address to Adam here is purely rhetorical, and if this presents no problem for a prospective audience, Good News Bible may be followed as a model for this verse. For translators who think that addressing Adam directly may be difficult, we offer this alternative:

• Look at [or, Consider] the trouble that Adam caused. When he sinned, he caused not only his own ruin [or, downfall], but the ruin of all his descendants as well.

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.