Therefore you should also consider that you and your contemporaries are smaller in stature than those who were before you: Here, as in verse 52, the author is talking about people’s height. He probably has in mind Gen 6.4 (compare Num 13.33; Amos 2.9). The conjunction Therefore introduces a conclusion. Good News Bible leaves this connector implied. Those who were before you may be rendered “the people who lived long ago” (Contemporary English Version). Good News Bible has a good model for this verse also.

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.