Uriel’s Interpretation of the Vision

(Cp Rev 21:9–21)

29 While I was speaking these words, the angel who had come to me at first came to me, and when he saw me 30 lying there like a corpse, deprived of my understanding, he grasped my right hand and strengthened me and set me on my feet, and said to me, 31 “What is the matter with you? And why are you troubled? And why are your understanding and the thoughts of your mind troubled?”

32 I said, “It was because you abandoned me. I did as you directed, and went out into the field, and lo, what I have seen, and can still see, I am unable to explain.”

33 He said to me, “Stand up like a man, and I will instruct you.”

34 I said, “Speak, my lord; only do not forsake me, so that I may not die before my time.h 35 For I have seen what I did not know, and I heari what I do not understand 36 —or is my mind deceived, and my soul dreaming? 37 Now therefore I beg you to give your servant an explanation of this bewildering vision.”

38 He answered me and said, “Listen to me, and I will teach you, and tell you about the things that you fear; for the Most High has revealed many secrets to you. 39 He has seen your righteous conduct, and that you have sorrowed continually for your people and mourned greatly over Zion. 40 This therefore is the meaning of the vision. 41 The woman who appeared to you a little while ago, whom you saw mourning and whom you began to console 42 (you do not now see the form of a woman, but there appeared to you a city being built)j 43 and who told you about the misfortune of her son—this is the interpretation: 44 The woman whom you saw is Zion, which you now behold as a city being built.k 45 And as for her telling you that she was barren for thirty years, the reason is that there were three thousandl years in the world before any offering was offered in it.m 46 And after three thousandn years Solomon built the city, and offered offerings; then it was that the barren woman bore a son. 47 And as for her telling you that she brought him up with much care, that was the period of residence in Jerusalem. 48 And as for her saying to you, ‘My son died as he entered his wedding chamber,’ and that misfortune had overtaken her,o this was the destruction that befell Jerusalem. 49 So you saw her likeness, how she mourned for her son, and you began to console her for what had happened.p 50 For now the Most High, seeing that you are sincerely grieved and profoundly distressed for her, has shown you the brilliance of her glory, and the loveliness of her beauty. 51 Therefore I told you to remain in the field where no house had been built, 52 for I knew that the Most High would reveal these things to you. 53 Therefore I told you to go into the field where there was no foundation of any building, 54 because no work of human construction could endure in a place where the city of the Most High was to be revealed.

55 “Therefore do not be afraid, and do not let your heart be terrified; but go in and see the splendor orq the vastness of the building, as far as it is possible for your eyes to see it, 56 and afterward you will hear as much as your ears can hear. 57 For you are more blessed than many, and you have been called to be withr the Most High as few have been. 58 But tomorrow night you shall remain here, 59 and the Most High will show you in those dream visions what the Most High will do to those who inhabit the earth in the last days.”

So I slept that night and the following one, as he had told me.