The list in verses 3-35 includes only lay people. From verses 3 to 20 the list is according to the names of families and from verses 21 to 35 it is according to the names of places. Each family name is preceded by the phrase sons of, meaning “descendants of.” Good News Translation refers to the descendants or the extended family here as “clan” (see the comments on Ezra 1.5).

Translators will need to determine how to present the list (see the comments on Ezra 1.9-10). Good News Translation and New International Version use columns to list the names and to state the numbers as numerals. Revised Standard Version and many other versions list the names and the numbers in a brief prose form. Bible de Jérusalem uses a similar presentation but gives the numbers in numeral form. If columns are used, verses will need to be grouped together, for example, 3-20 and 21-35 (so Good News Translation). However, if they are presented in text format, each verse can be identified separately by number (so Revised Standard Version, New King James Version , Segond). What is important for the translator to remember is that lists are difficult and even tedious to read and therefore their presentation must be as clear as possible for the receptor culture. As each new group of people is introduced, Good News Translation explicitly repeats the information that they were people who “returned from exile” or who “also returned” (see verses 21, 36, 40, 43).

The sons of Pahathmoab, namely the sons of Jeshua and Joab (2.6): The text specifies here that the descendants of Pahathmoab who returned to Judah were those who were descended through the lines of Jeshua and Joab. Pahathmoab means “governor of Moab.” Revised Standard Version writes it as a single word as in the Septuagint. Good News Translation follows the Hebrew by writing it as two separate words. As stated in “Translating Ezra and Nehemiah” (page 25), translators should be consistent in whether they write names like Pahathmoab as one word or two. They should follow the version that they have adopted as their model.

The sons of Ater, namely of Hezekiah (2.16): Although some versions understand these names to refer to two different people, one being the descendant of the other (so New English Bible, New International Version, Nouvelle version Segond révisée, Chouraqui), many take them to be two names for the same ancestor as Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation have done (so Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Bible de Jérusalem, Osty-Trinquet). It is preferable to take them as two names for the same person.

Quoted with permission from Noss, Philip A. and Thomas, Kenneth J. A Handbook on Ezra. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2005. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .