I call to witness the gratitude of the people that is yet to come, whose children rejoice with gladness: The Lord tells his people that the coming people, who will take their place, will be grateful, unlike Israel, for what he does for them. Whose children rejoice with gladness means the descendants of the coming people will be happy and shout for joy. This sentence may be translated “I want you to know that the people who take your place will be grateful for what I do for them. Their descendants will be a happy people who shout for joy.”

Though they do not see me with bodily eyes, yet with the spirit they will believe the things I have said: Compare John 20.29; 1 Peter 1.8. It is not necessary to make the phrase with bodily eyes explicit in translation, if it will be clear to the reader that the verb see refers to physical sight (so Good News Bible). Here the Latin word for spirit refers to a person’s inner being. Some languages refer to this inner being as the “heart” or “mind.” We may render this sentence as “They will not see me, but in their hearts they will believe the things I have said.”

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.