2 Esdras 1:1–2:48

¹The second book of the prophet Ezra the son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, son of Shallum, son of Zadok, son of Ahitub, ²son of Ahijah, son of Phinehas, son of Eli, son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Meraioth, son of Arna, son of Uzzi, son of Borith, son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, ³son of Aaron, of the tribe of Levi, who was a captive in the country of the Medes in the reign of Artaxerxes, king of the Persians.

⁴The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ⁵“Go and declare to my people their evil deeds, and to their children the iniquities which they have committed against me, so that they may tell their children’s children ⁶that the sins of their parents have increased in them, for they have forgotten me and have offered sacrifices to strange gods. ⁷Was it not I who brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage? But they have angered me and despised my counsels. ⁸Pull out the hair of your head and hurl all evils upon them, for they have not obeyed my law—they are a rebellious people. ⁹How long shall I endure them, on whom I have bestowed such great benefits? ¹⁰For their sake I have overthrown many kings: I struck down Pharaoh with his servants, and all his army. ¹¹I have destroyed all nations before them, and scattered in the east the people of two provinces, Tyre and Sidon; I have slain all their enemies.

¹²“But speak to them and say, Thus says the Lord: ¹³Surely it was I who brought you through the sea, and made safe highways for you where there was no road; I gave you Moses as leader and Aaron as priest; ¹⁴I provided light for you from a pillar of fire, and did great wonders among you. Yet you have forgotten me, says the Lord.

¹⁵“Thus says the Lord Almighty: The quails were a sign to you; I gave you camps for your protection, and in them you complained. ¹⁶You have not exulted in my name at the destruction of your enemies, but to this day you still complain. ¹⁷Where are the benefits which I bestowed on you? When you were hungry and thirsty in the wilderness, did you not cry out to me, ¹⁸saying, ‘Why hast thou led us into this wilderness to kill us? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in this wilderness.’ ¹⁹I pitied your groanings and gave you manna for food; you ate the bread of angels. ²⁰When you were thirsty, did I not cleave the rock so that waters flowed in abundance? Because of the heat I covered you with the leaves of trees. ²¹I divided fertile lands among you; I drove out the Canaanites, the Perizzites, and the Philistines before you. What more can I do for you? says the Lord. ²²Thus says the Lord Almighty: When you were in the wilderness, at the bitter stream, thirsty and blaspheming my name, ²³I did not send fire upon you for your blasphemies, but threw a tree into the water and made the stream sweet.

²⁴“What shall I do to you, O Jacob? You would not obey me, O Judah. I will turn to other nations and will give them my name, that they may keep my statutes. ²⁵Because you have forsaken me, I also will forsake you. When you beg mercy of me, I will show you no mercy. ²⁶When you call upon me, I will not listen to you; for you have defiled your hands with blood, and your feet are swift to commit murder. ²⁷It is not as though you had forsaken me; you have forsaken yourselves, says the Lord.

²⁸“Thus says the Lord Almighty: Have I not entreated you as a father entreats his sons or a mother her daughters or a nurse her children, ²⁹that you should be my people and I should be your God, and that you should be my sons and I should be your father? ³⁰I gathered you as a hen gathers her brood under her wings. But now, what shall I do to you? I will cast you out from my presence. ³¹When you offer oblations to me, I will turn my face from you; for I have rejected your feast days, and new moons, and circumcisions of the flesh. ³²I sent to you my servants the prophets, but you have taken and slain them and torn their bodies in pieces; their blood I will require of you, says the Lord.

³³“Thus says the Lord Almighty: Your house is desolate; I will drive you out as the wind drives straw; ³⁴and your sons will have no children, because with you they have neglected my commandment and have done what is evil in my sight. ³⁵I will give your houses to a people that will come, who without having heard me will believe. Those to whom I have shown no signs will do what I have commanded. ³⁶They have seen no prophets, yet will recall their former state. ³⁷I call to witness the gratitude of the people that is to come, whose children rejoice with gladness; though they do not see me with bodily eyes, yet with the spirit they will believe the things I have said.

³⁸“And now, father, look with pride and see the people coming from the east; ³⁹to them I will give as leaders Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and Hosea and Amos and Micah and Joel and Obadiah and Jonah ⁴⁰and Nahum and Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, who is also called the messenger of the Lord.

Chapter 2

¹“Thus says the Lord: I brought this people out of bondage, and I gave them commandments through my servants the prophets; but they would not listen to them, and made my counsels void. ²The mother who bore them says to them, ‘Go, my children, because I am a widow and forsaken. ³I brought you up with gladness; but with mourning and sorrow I have lost you, because you have sinned before the Lord God and have done what is evil in my sight. ⁴But now what can I do for you? For I am a widow and forsaken. Go, my children, and ask for mercy from the Lord.’ ⁵I call upon you, father, as a witness in addition to the mother of the children, because they would not keep my covenant, ⁶that you may bring confusion upon them and bring their mother to ruin, so that they may have no offspring. ⁷Let them be scattered among the nations, let their names be blotted out from the earth, because they have despised my covenant.

⁸“Woe to you, Assyria, who conceal the unrighteous in your midst! O wicked nation, remember what I did to Sodom and Gomorrah, ⁹whose land lies in lumps of pitch and heaps of ashes. So will I do to those who have not listened to me, says the Lord Almighty.”

¹⁰Thus says the Lord to Ezra: “Tell my people that I will give them the kingdom of Jerusalem, which I was going to give to Israel. ¹¹Moreover, I will take back to myself their glory, and will give to these others the everlasting habitations, which I had prepared for Israel. ¹²The tree of life shall give them fragrant perfume, and they shall neither toil nor become weary. ¹³Ask and you will receive; pray that your days may be few, that they may be shortened. The kingdom is already prepared for you; watch! ¹⁴Call, O call heaven and earth to witness, for I left out evil and created good, because I live, says the Lord.

¹⁵“Mother, embrace your sons; bring them up with gladness, as does the dove; establish their feet, because I have chosen you, says the Lord. ¹⁶And I will raise up the dead from their places, and will bring them out from their tombs, because I recognize my name in them. ¹⁷Do not fear, mother of sons, for I have chosen you, says the Lord. ¹⁸I will send you help, my servants Isaiah and Jeremiah. According to their counsel I have consecrated and prepared for you twelve trees loaded with various fruits, ¹⁹and the same number of springs flowing with milk and honey, and seven mighty mountains on which roses and lilies grow; by these I will fill your children with joy. ²⁰Guard the rights of the widow, secure justice for the fatherless, give to the needy, defend the orphan, clothe the naked, ²¹care for the injured and the weak, do not ridicule a lame man, protect the maimed, and let the blind man have a vision of my splendor. ²²Protect the old and the young within your walls; ²³When you find any who are dead, commit them to the grave and mark it, and I will give you the first place in my resurrection. ²⁴Pause and be quiet, my people, because your rest will come. ²⁵Good nurse, nourish your sons, and strengthen their feet. ²⁶Not one of the servants whom I have given you will perish, for I will require them from among your number. ²⁷Do not be anxious, for when the day of tribulation and anguish comes, others shall weep and be sorrowful, but you shall rejoice and have abundance. ²⁸The nations shall envy you but they shall not be able to do anything against you, says the Lord. ²⁹My hands will cover you, that your sons may not see Gehenna. ³⁰Rejoice, O mother, with your sons, because I will deliver you, says the Lord. ³¹Remember your sons that sleep, because I will bring them out of the hiding places of the earth, and will show mercy to them; for I am merciful, says the Lord Almighty. ³²Embrace your children until I come, and proclaim mercy to them; because my springs run over, and my grace will not fail.”

³³I, Ezra, received a command from the Lord on Mount Horeb to go to Israel. When I came to them they rejected me and refused the Lord’s commandment. ³⁴Therefore I say to you, O nations that hear and understand, “Await your shepherd; he will give you everlasting rest, because he who will come at the end of the age is close at hand. ³⁵Be ready for the rewards of the kingdom, because the eternal light will shine upon you for evermore. ³⁶Flee from the shadow of this age, receive the joy of your glory; I publicly call on my Savior to witness. ³⁷Receive what the Lord has entrusted to you and be joyful, giving thanks to him who has called you to heavenly kingdoms. ³⁸Rise and stand, and see at the feast of the Lord the number of those who have been sealed. ³⁹Those who have departed from the shadow of this age have received glorious garments from the Lord. ⁴⁰Take again your full number, O Zion, and conclude the list of your people who are clothed in white, who have fulfilled the law of the Lord. ⁴¹The number of your children, whom you desired, is full; beseech the…