And great and mighty clouds, full of wrath and tempest, shall rise, to destroy all the earth and its inhabitants, and shall pour out upon every high and lofty place a terrible tempest: For the Latin word rendered tempest (sidus), see the comments on verses 13, 36, and 39. As there, we take this word in an astrological sense, meaning “star.” The footnotes in Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible here are important. The Latin expression for high and lofty place is ambiguous, and there is no way to tell whether powerful people or high mountains are meant. Probably both are involved; the imagery is geographical but the reference is to real people, who cannot be identified.

Here are possible models for this verse:

• Huge, powerful, angry storm clouds, as well as the stars, will arise to destroy the earth and everyone on it. Every powerful person will meet a terrible fate.

• Then large and dark storm clouds as well as the stars will move in and destroy the earth and its people. They will pour down great anger on every powerful person and destroy them.

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.