And I answered and said: The verb answered is not the right word here, since God did not ask Ezra anything. A better verb is “replied” or “asked” (Good News Bible, Contemporary English Version), since this quote frame introduces two questions.

What will be the dividing of the times? Or when will be the end of the first age and the beginning of the age that follows?: We agree with Stone (page 159) that these two questions have exactly the same meaning, so they may be combined; for example, Contemporary English Version says “How much time will pass between the end of the present age and the beginning of the next?” Good News Bible is mistaken in having Ezra ask two different things. The Latin word for age differs from the one used in 2 Esd 2.34, but see the comments there.

Alternative models for this verse are:

• To this I replied, “How can we tell when this age ends and the next age begins?”

• When I heard this, I asked him, “How…?”

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.