When I found there none of the sons of the priests or of the Levites: For priests and Levites, see the comments on 1 Esd 1.2-3. Ezra discovered that out of all the people he had persuaded to go to Judah, not one could serve in the Temple as a priest or Levite. This is something he had to correct. The parallel passage of Ezra 8.15 says that there were no “sons of Levi” present. The author of 1 Esdras interprets this to mean neither priests nor Levites were present. The Ezra passage is usually taken to mean that priests were present, but not Levites (so Good News Bible). Alternative models for this verse are:

• When I discovered that none of these men was a priest or a Levite….

• I discovered that not a single one of them was a priest or a Levite.

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.