How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing!

The Greek that is translated as “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” or similar in English is translated in Ankave as “As a chicken extracts its young and gathers them under her breast, although all the time I tried to do the same to you, why did it not please you (to allow me to do so)?” (Source: Richard Speece in Notes on Translation 1988. p. 47ff.)

This is also depicted as a mosaic in Dominus Flevit, a Roman Catholic church on the Mount of Olives:

Image by Anton 17 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Translation commentary on 2 Esdras 1:30

I gathered you as a hen gathers her brood under her wings: Compare Matt 23.37; Luke 13.34. Just as a hen protects her chicks under her wings, so God protected his people from danger. This sentence may be rendered “I brought you together to protect you the way a hen protects her chicks under her wings.”

But now, what shall I do to you?: This question is rhetorical; it does not expect an answer. It pictures God as deciding how he will punish the Jewish people. It may be translated “But how shall I punish you now?” or “But now, this is how I will punish you.”

I will cast you out from my presence may be rendered “I will have nothing more to do with you.”

Here is a possible model for this verse:

• I brought you together to protect you the way a hen protects her chicks under her wings. But now, how must I punish you? I will have nothing more to do with you.

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.