And the dead shall be cast out like dung: Compare Jer 8.2; 9.22; 16.4; 25.33. Good News Bible and Contemporary English Version try to avoid a possible obscenity by rendering dung as “garbage,” which makes the same point, but not as forcefully. Translators should decide whether their equivalent of dung will be acceptable in this context. In languages that do not have the passive voice, this clause may be translated “People will throw the bodies of dead people out of the cities like they would throw out garbage [or, dung].”

And there shall be no one to console them: The Latin for this clause is awkward, but the only possible meaning is that no one will be left to give comfort to the survivors. So we may say “and there will be no one left to comfort the survivors [or, the living].”

For the earth shall be left desolate: Good News Bible has “The earth will be deserted,” but this rendering actually says that people have left the earth to go somewhere else, which is certainly not what the author is saying. He pictures the world as depopulated. A better model is “The earth will be empty of people.”

And its cities shall be demolished: For languages that do not have the passive voice, this clause may be expressed as “and its cities will lie in ruins” (similarly Contemporary English Version).

Here are alternative models for this verse:

• Dead bodies will be thrown out of the cities like dung, and there will be no one left to comfort the survivors [or, those still living]. The earth will be empty of people, and its cities demolished.

• People will throw the bodies of dead people out of the cities as if they were garbage [or, dung], and there will be no one left to comfort those still living….

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.