I answered and said: The verb answered is misleading. Ezra is reacting to what Uriel has said in the previous verses. In verses 4-5 Ezra is speaking to himself. This quote frame may be rendered “After the angel Uriel had spoken, I said to myself.”

Then drink your fill of understanding, O my soul, and drink wisdom, O my heart!: With the expressions O my soul and O my heart, Ezra speaks to himself. Some translators may find that this is a natural way of speaking in their languages, and may follow Revised Standard Version. Good News Bible uses simply the first person pronoun “I.” Another potential problem here is the imagery of drinking wisdom and understanding. Ezra is essentially determining that he must discover wisdom and make it part of his own being. A nonfigurative model for this sentence is “I must try as hard as I can to understand these things.”

The Latin text of this sentence is difficult. It says literally “Therefore, soul, release understanding and let it feed on what it knows.” Drink your fill of translates the Latin verb absorbe, which is the reading of some late Latin manuscripts. However, this Latin word does not literally mean “drink,” but “absorb” or “take in.” The most reliable Latin manuscripts have the verb absolve, which means “release,” “relate,” or “tell of.” New Revised Standard Version inserts a footnote indicating that in reading drink your fill of understanding it is following the Syriac rather than the Latin. Revised Standard Version, following the Syriac, reads drink wisdom, O my heart (so also New Revised Standard Version, although it omits the textual footnote found in Revised Standard Version). Stone, following the Ethiopic, reads “drink wisdom, O my ears.” At verse 5 below we offer alternative models for this verse.

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.