All these were mingled together, the stream of fire and the flaming breath and the great storm: The Latin expression for the great storm is literally “multitude of [a/the] storm” (multitudo tempestatis), which is at least as problematic as the phrase at the end of verse 10. The phrase the great storm would be more appropriate if the Latin read magnitudo tempestatis (“greatness of storm”) rather than multitudo tempestatis. In fact, the great storm is misleading. The Latin word multitudo refers to the same multitude of sparks that constituted the “storm” of verse 10. The Latin phrase multitudo tempestatis may be a shortened way of saying multitudo scintillarum tempestatis (“multitude of sparks in/of the [aforesaid] storm”). In fact, one Latin manuscript reads precisely that. We figure this reading is only a scribe doing what we are doing, and we are not making a textual appeal to that manuscript for our interpretation or translation here. To help the reader understand our thinking, we translate this whole clause as we understand it, although it will undergo some change before we reach our final model for the verse: “They all came together, the stream of fire, the blazing breath, and the storm of sparks.”

And fell on the onrushing multitude which was prepared to fight, and burned them all up, so that suddenly nothing was seen of the innumerable multitude but only the dust of ashes and the smell of smoke: For the onrushing multitude, see 2Esdras 13.9. Here the word multitude refers to the crowd assembled to fight the man from the sea, not to the multitude of sparks. The phrase the dust of ashes sounds needlessly repetitious in English, but it is not that odd in Latin, where it specifies a particular kind of dust. It simply means “ashes” (Contemporary English Version).

When I saw it, I was amazed: Good News Bible says “I was shocked when I saw what had happened.”

We offer this as a model for the entire verse:

• That stream of fire, that blazing breath, and that storm of sparks all swept [or, rushed/fell] down on the army [or, multitude] that was advancing to fight, and burned them all up. Suddenly, where all those people had been, there was nothing left but ashes and the smell of smoke. I was shocked to see this happen.

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.