2 Esdras 5:21–6:35

Ezra’s Second Prayer of Complaint

²¹After seven days the thoughts of my heart were very grievous to me again.^{* 22}Then my soul recovered the spirit of understanding, and I began once more to speak words in the presence of the Most High.^{* 23}I said, “O sovereign Lord, from every forest of the earth, and from all its trees you have chosen one vine,^{* 24}and from all the lands of the world you have chosen for yourself one region,^z and from all the flowers of the world you have chosen for yourself one lily,^{* 25}and from all the depths of the sea you have filled for yourself one river, and from all the cities that have been built you have consecrated Zion for yourself,^{* 26}and from all the birds that have been created you have named for yourself one dove, and from all the flocks that have been made you have provided for yourself one sheep,^{* 27}and from all the multitude of peoples you have gotten for yourself one people, and to this people, whom you have loved, you have given the law that is approved by all.^{* 28}And now, O Lord, why have you handed the one over to the many and dishonored^a the one root beyond the others and scattered your only one among the many?^{* 29}And those who opposed your promises have trampled on those who believed your covenants. ³⁰If you really hate your people, they should be punished at your own hands.”^*

Response to Ezra’s Complaints

³¹When I had spoken these words, the angel who had come to me on a previous night was sent to me.^{* 32}He said to me, “Listen to me, and I will instruct you; pay attention to me, and I will tell you more.”

³³Then I said, “Speak, my lord.” And he said to me, “Are you greatly disturbed in mind over Israel? Or do you love him more than his Maker does?”^*

³⁴I said, “No, my lord, but because of my grief I have spoken, for every hour I suffer agonies of heart while I strive to understand the way of the Most High and to search out some part of his judgment.”^*

³⁵He said to me, “You cannot.” And I said, “Why not, my lord? Why, then, was I born? Or why did not my mother’s womb become my grave, so that I would not see the travail of Jacob and the exhaustion of the people of Israel?”^*

³⁶He said to me, “Count up for me those who have not yet come, and gather for me the scattered raindrops, and make the withered flowers bloom again for me;^{* 37}open for me the closed chambers, and bring out for me the winds shut up in them, or show me the picture of a voice, and then I will explain to you the travail that you ask to see.”^*

³⁸I said, “O sovereign Lord, who is able to know these things except him whose dwelling is not with mortals?^{* 39}As for me, I am without wisdom, and how can I speak concerning the things that you have asked me?”^*

⁴⁰He said to me, “Just as you cannot do one of the things that were mentioned, so you cannot discover my judgment or the goal of the love that I have promised to my people.”^*

Why Successive Generations Have Been Created

⁴¹I said, “Yet, O Lord, you have charge of those who are alive at the end, but what will those do who lived before me, or we ourselves, or those who come after us?”

⁴²He said to me, “I shall liken my judgment to a circle;^b just as for those who are last there is no slowness, so for those who are first there is no haste.”

⁴³Then I answered and said, “Could you not have created at one time those who have been and those who are and those who will be, so that you might show your judgment the sooner?”^*

⁴⁴He replied to me and said, “The creation cannot move faster than the Creator, nor can the world hold at one time those who have been created in it.”^*

⁴⁵I said, “How have you said to your servant that you^c will certainly give life at one time to your creation? If therefore all creatures will live at one time^d and the creation will sustain them, it might even now be able to support all of them present at one time.”

⁴⁶He said to me, “Ask a woman’s womb, and say to it, ‘If you bear ten children, why one after another?’ Request it therefore to produce ten at one time.”

⁴⁷I said, “Of course it cannot, but only each in its own time.”

⁴⁸He said to me, “Even so I have given the womb of the earth to those who from time to time are sown in it.^{* 49}For as an infant does not bring forth, and a woman who has become old does not bring forth any longer, so I have made the same rule for the world that I created.”^*

When and How Will the End Come?

⁵⁰Then I inquired and said, “Since you have now given me the opportunity, let me speak before you. Is our mother, of whom you have told me, still young, or is she now approaching old age?”^*

⁵¹He replied to me, “Ask a woman who bears children, and she will tell you. ⁵²Say to her, ‘Why are those whom you have borne recently not like those whom you bore before, but smaller in stature?’^{* 53}And she herself will answer you, ‘Those born in the strength of youth are different from those born during the time of old age, when the womb is failing.’ ⁵⁴Therefore you also should consider that you and your contemporaries are smaller in stature than those who were before you,^{* 55}and those who come after you will be smaller than you, as born of a creation that already is aging and passing the strength of youth.”

⁵⁶I said, “I implore you, O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, show your servant through whom you will visit your creation.”^*

⁶He said to me, “At the beginning of the circle of the earth, before^e the portals of the world were in place, and before the assembled winds blew,^{* 2}and before the rumblings of thunder sounded, and before the flashes of lightning shone, and before the foundations of paradise were laid, ³and before the beautiful flowers were seen, and before the powers of movements^f were established, and before the innumerable hosts of angels were gathered together,^{* 4}and before the heights of the air were lifted up, and before the measures of the firmaments were named, and before the footstool of Zion was established,^{* 5}and before the present years were reckoned, and before the imaginations of those who now sin were estranged, and before those who stored up treasures of faith were sealed^*—⁶then I planned these things, and they were made through me alone and not through another, just as the end shall come through me alone and not through another.”^*

The Dividing of the Times

⁷I answered and said, “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?”

⁸He said to me, “From Abraham to Isaac,^g because from him were born Jacob and Esau, for Jacob’s hand held Esau’s heel from the beginning.^{* 9}Now Esau is the end of this age, and Jacob is the beginning of the age that follows. ¹⁰The beginning of a person is the hand, and the end of a person is the heel;^h seek for nothing else, Ezra, between the heel and the hand, Ezra!”

More Signs of the End

¹¹I answered and said, “O sovereign Lord, if I have found favor in your sight,^{* 12}show your servant the last of your signs of which you showed me a part on a previous night.”^*

¹³He answered and said to me, “Rise to your feet, and you will hear a full, resounding voice.^{* 14}And if the place where you are standing is greatly shaken^{* 15}while the voice is speaking, do not be terrified, because the word concerns the end, and the foundations of the earth will understand ¹⁶that the speech concerns them. They will tremble and be shaken, for they know that their end must be changed.”

¹⁷When I heard this, I got to my feet and listened; a voice was speaking, and its sound was like the sound of mightyⁱ waters.^{* 18}It said, “The days are coming when I draw near to visit the inhabitants of the earth,^{* 19}and when I require from the doers of iniquity the penalty of their iniquity, and when the humiliation of Zion is complete.^{* 20}When the seal is placed upon the age that is about to pass away, then I will show these signs: the books shall be opened before the face of the firmament, and all shall see my judgment^j together.^{* 21}Children a year old shall speak with their voices, and pregnant women shall give birth to premature children at three and four months, and these shall live and leap about. ²²Sown places shall suddenly appear unsown, and full storehouses shall suddenly be found to be empty; ²³the trumpet shall sound aloud, and when all hear it they shall suddenly be terrified.^{* 24}At that time friends shall make war on friends like enemies, the earth and those who inhabit it shall be terrified, and the springs of the fountains shall stand still, so that for three hours they shall not flow.^*

²⁵“It shall be that whoever remains after all that I have foretold to you shall be saved and shall see my salvation and the end of my world.^{* 26}And they shall see those who were taken up, who from their birth have not tasted death, and the heart of the earth’s^k inhabitants shall be changed and converted to a different spirit.^{* 27}For evil shall be blotted out, and deceit shall be quenched; ²⁸faithfulness shall flourish, and corruption shall be overcome, and the truth, which has been so long without fruit, shall be revealed.”^*

Conclusion of the Second Vision

²⁹While he spoke to me, little by little the place where I was standing began to rock to and fro. ³⁰And he said to me, “I have come to show you these things this night.^{l 31}If therefore you will pray again and fast again for seven days, I will again declare to you greater things than these,^{m* 32}because your voice has surely been heard by the Most High, for the Mighty One has seen your uprightness and has also observed the purity that you have maintained from your youth.^{* 33}Therefore he sent me to show you all these things and to say to you: ‘Believe and do not be afraid!^{* 34}Do not be quick to think vain thoughts concerning the former times; then you will not act hastily in the last times.’ ”^*

The Third Vision

³⁵Now after this I wept again and fasted seven days in the same way as before, in order to complete the three weeks that had been…