And now, O our God: Once again there is a dramatic shift. For And now, see “But now” in verse 8 above. Ezra again addresses God directly with a vocative: O our God (see verse 6 above). The first time he said “my God,” but here he says our God. In both cases Good News Translation omits the possessive pronoun. If possible, these pronouns should be reflected in translation to be faithful to Old Testament theological expression. In this verse Ezra’s prayer takes the form of a sermon addressed to the community.

What shall we say…?: In the Hebrew text this is an interrogative pronoun and an imperfect verb form. In English the pattern used by Revised Standard Version is acceptable, implying an obligation or a possibility. In contemporary usage the question may be interpreted as Good News Translation has done. In some languages this will take a special verb form to express a possibility. In other languages it may be expressed with an infinitive construction, for example, “What to do…?” The question is a rhetorical question because Ezra does not expect to receive an answer from his audience.

After this: Ezra asks what answer can be given to God in the light of what has happened that has been reported in the first part of his prayer. Revised English Bible says “in the face of this.” The whole rhetorical question could be restated as a statement; for example, “There is nothing we can say after this.”

For we have forsaken thy commandments: Ezra goes on to explain further what he means by after this. He is referring to the people’s faithlessness. In Hebrew verses 10-11 are one sentence. After the opening question, Good News Translation runs the second part of verse 10 into verse 11. Then it makes another sentence break in verse 11. The second part of verse 10 could be seen as the answer Ezra offers to the rhetorical question, so a possible rendering is “The only answer we can give is that we have not followed your commandments.” Forsaken thy commandments is an old form of English that means to “disregard” (so New International Version) or “abandon” (so Osty-Trinquet, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible) God’s laws. In contemporary English this is to “disobey.” For commandments see the comments at Ezra 7.11.

Quoted with permission from Noss, Philip A. and Thomas, Kenneth J. A Handbook on Ezra. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2005. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .