And I saw may be rendered “When I saw this” (Good News Bible) or even “When I saw how wicked humans were.”

And spared some with great difficulty: God says that humanity had become so wicked that he had to restrain himself from destroying all of them. We may translate this clause as “I had great difficulty saving [or, sparing] any of them,” “it was all I could do to keep from destroying everyone,” or “I really wanted to destroy everyone.” Revised Standard Version‘s footnote here involves a translational matter, so it is not needed.

And saved for myself one grape out of a cluster refers to those few who are saved. Contemporary English Version changes the metaphor here into a simile, saying “yet I decided to save a few, like one grape out of a bunch.” Another possible model is “but I saved some people for myself, like one grape from a cluster.”

And one plant out of a great forest is another metaphor referring to the few who are saved. Instead of forest, the Latin text has “tribe” (see the footnotes in Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible). “Tribe” is surely a mistake for forest. The similarity in the Greek words for “tribe” and “forest” accounts for this confusion. A plant in a forest would be a “tree” (Good News Bible).

Here is an alternative model for this verse:

• When I saw this [or, how sinful humans were], it was all I could do to keep from destroying everyone [or, I really wanted to destroy everyone], but I saved a few people for myself, like one grape from a cluster, or like one tree out of a large forest.

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.