I did not send fire upon you for your blasphemies …: God could have punished the Israelites for cursing him, but instead, he made the bitter water drinkable. This clause may be rendered “I did not punish you by sending fire down on you for cursing me.”

But threw a tree into the water and made the stream sweet: Instead of tree, Good News Bible has “wood.” Either term is acceptable, although “wood” is closer to the Latin text. Translators should use whatever term was used in Exo 15.25, where the Hebrew term for “tree” is ambiguous. However, it is unlikely that Moses picked up a whole tree and threw it into the water. He probably used either a tree branch or an even smaller piece of wood. Contemporary English Version has “piece of wood,” which is a good model. Made the stream sweet does not mean the water became sweet like honey or sugar; it refers to the bitter water being made drinkable.

Here is a possible model for this verse:

• I did not punish you by sending fire down on you for cursing me. Instead, I threw [a piece of] wood into the water, and made it drinkable.

Contemporary English Version provides the following helpful model:

• But instead of punishing you with fire for what you said, I threw a piece of wood into the water and made it fit to drink.

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.