And I looked, and behold: See the comments on 2 Esd 11.2. Good News Bible says simply “As I watched.”

This wind made something like the figure of a man come up out of the heart of the sea: The footnotes in Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible indicate that this whole clause is not in the Latin text. The Latin is defective here, and the addition from the ancient versions is necessary. In most languages it will be natural to talk about a wind making a man come out of the sea (so Good News Bible). However, translators may also begin this clause with “this storm made….” Like the figure of a man means that it was a not a real man that came up from the sea, but something that appeared to be a man. Ezra was dreaming; he could not really tell what this was, but it looked like a man, and after this verse he refers to “the man” (verse 5). The Latin word for man can mean “human being,” but since an individual being is described, “man” is probably a good translation, at least in English. We learn later that the man is the Messiah (see verse 26). The phrase the heart of the sea appeared earlier in 2 Esd 4.7 (see the comments there).

And I looked, and behold, that man flew with the clouds of heaven: Compare Dan 7.13. When the wind stirred up the waves and the human form emerged from the mist and foam, it flew. We take this to mean that the man rose into the air, not that he started flapping his arms and flying around like a bird. Instead of flew, the Latin text has “grew strong” (Revised Standard Version footnote). We prefer the reading in the ancient versions (so Revised Standard Version, Good News Bible). For flew with the clouds of heaven, compare Psa 68.4 and Isa 19.1, where God rides on the clouds (see also Psa 104.3). In most languages it will not be necessary to mention heaven, that is, the sky, so this phrase may be rendered “rose into the clouds.”

And wherever he turned his face to look may be translated “When the man would turn his head” or even “No matter which direction the man turned his head [or, face].”

Everything under his gaze trembled: Compare 2 Esd 8.23. Contemporary English Version says “everything he looked at trembled with fear.”

An alternative model for this verse is:

• As I was looking, the wind made the form of a man come up out of the sea and rise into the clouds. When the man would turn his head [or, face], everything he looked at trembled.*
* The Latin of this verse is uncertain.

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.