He answered me and said: God is the speaker here, which Contemporary English Version makes clear by saying “The Lord said.”

As is the field, so is the seed means that the seed will grow well if the soil is fertile. Translators may say “Seeds will grow only if the soil is fertile.”

And as are the flowers, so are the colors: Good News Bible has “the color of the flower depends on the kind of flower.”

And as is the work, so is the product may be rendered “If the worker is skillful, he will do good work” or “A job will be done well, only if the workers are skilled” (Contemporary English Version).

And as is the farmer, so is the threshing floor seems to be saying that the size of the harvest depends on how hard the farmer works. For threshing floor, see the comments on 2 Esd 4.32. Here this image may be rendered nonfiguratively as “how much grain is harvested.”

An alternative model for this verse is:

• God said to me, “A seed will grow only if the soil is fertile. The color of a flower depends on the kind of flower it is. A job will be done well only if the worker is skilled. The size of the harvest depends on how hard the farmer has worked.

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.