3. Anon., 4 Ezra, 3.1, 3.7, 3.11, 3.15-3.16, 3.19, 3.32, 4.23, 5.27, 6.53-6.54, 6.56, 7.48, 7.60, 7.62-7.74, 8.4-8.15, 8.19-8.22, 8.31-8.32, 8.36, 8.44-8.45, 8.50-8.53, 12.42, 13.42, 14.5, 14.9, 14.26-14.36, 14.45-14.48
| 3.1. In the thirtieth year after the destruction of our city, I Salathiel, who am also called Ezra, was in Babylon. I was troubled as I lay on my bed, and my thoughts welled up in my heart 3.7. And thou didst lay upon him one commandment of thine; but he transgressed it, and immediately thou didst appoint death for him and for his descendants. From him there sprang nations and tribes, peoples and clans without number. 3.11. But thou didst leave one of them, Noah with his household, and all the righteous who have descended from him. 3.15. Thou didst make with him an everlasting covet, and promise him that thou wouldst never forsake his descendants; and thou gavest to him Isaac, and to Isaac thou gavest Jacob and Esau. 3.16. And thou didst set apart Jacob for thyself, but Esau thou didst reject; and Jacob became a great multitude. 3.19. And thy glory passed through the four gates of fire and earthquake and wind and ice, to give the law to the descendants of Jacob, and thy commandment to the posterity of Israel. 3.32. Or has another nation known thee besides Israel? Or what tribes have so believed thy covets as these tribes of Jacob? 4.23. For I did not wish to inquire about the ways above, but about those things which we daily experience: why Israel has been given over to the Gentiles as a reproach; why the people whom you loved has been given over to godless tribes, and the law of our fathers has been made of no effect and the written covets no longer exist; 5.27. and from all the multitude of peoples thou hast gotten for thyself one people; and to this people, whom thou hast loved, thou hast given the law which is approved by all. 6.53. On the sixth day thou didst command the earth to bring forth before thee cattle, beasts, and creeping things; 6.54. and over these thou didst place Adam, as ruler over all the works which thou hadst made; and from him we have all come, the people whom thou hast chosen. 6.56. As for the other nations which have descended from Adam, thou hast said that they are nothing, and that they are like spittle, and thou hast compared their abundance to a drop from a bucket. 7.48. For an evil heart has grown up in us, which has alienated us from God, and has brought us into corruption and the ways of death, and has shown us the paths of perdition and removed us far from life -- and that not just a few of us but almost all who have been created! 7.60. So also will be the judgment which I have promised; for I will rejoice over the few who shall be saved, because it is they who have made my glory to prevail now, and through them my name has now been honored. 7.62. I replied and said, "O earth, what have you brought forth, if the mind is made out of the dust like the other created things! 7.63. For it would have been better if the dust itself had not been born, so that the mind might not have been made from it. 7.64. But now the mind grows with us, and therefore we are tormented, because we perish and know it. 7.65. Let the human race lament, but let the beasts of the field be glad; let all who have been born lament, but let the four-footed beasts and the flocks rejoice! 7.66. For it is much better with them than with us; for they do not look for a judgment, nor do they know of any torment or salvation promised to them after death. 7.67. For what does it profit us that we shall be preserved alive but cruelly tormented? 7.68. For all who have been born are involved in iniquities, and are full of sins and burdened with transgressions. 7.69. And if we were not to come into judgment after death, perhaps it would have been better for us. 7.70. He answered me and said, "When the Most High made the world and Adam and all who have come from him, he first prepared the judgment and the things that pertain to the judgment. 7.71. And now understand from your own words, for you have said that the mind grows with us. 7.72. For this reason, therefore, those who dwell on earth shall be tormented, because though they had understanding they committed iniquity, and though they received the commandments they did not keep them, and though they obtained the law they dealt unfaithfully with what they received. 7.73. What, then, will they have to say in the judgment, or how will they answer in the last times? 7.74. For how long the time is that the Most High has been patient with those who inhabit the world, and not for their sake, but because of the times which he has foreordained! 8.4. I answered and said, "Then drink your fill of understanding, O my soul, and drink wisdom, O my heart! 8.5. For not of your own will did you come into the world, and against your will you depart, for you have been given only a short time to live. 8.6. O Lord who are over us, grant to thy servant that we may pray before thee, and give us seed for our heart and cultivation of our understanding so that fruit may be produced, by which every mortal who bears the likeness of a human being may be able to live. 8.7. For thou alone dost exist, and we are a work of thy hands, as thou hast declared. 8.8. And because thou dost give life to the body which is now fashioned in the womb, and dost furnish it with members, what thou hast created is preserved in fire and water, and for nine months the womb which thou has formed endures thy creation which has been created in it. 8.9. But that which keeps and that which is kept shall both be kept by thy keeping. And when the womb gives up again what has been created in it 8.10. thou hast commanded that from the members themselves (that is, from the breasts) milk should be supplied which is the fruit of the breasts 8.11. so that what has been fashioned may be nourished for a time; and afterwards thou wilt guide him in thy mercy. 8.12. Thou hast brought him up in thy righteousness, and instructed him in thy law, and reproved him in thy wisdom. 8.13. Thou wilt take away his life, for he is thy creation; and thou wilt make him live, for he is thy work. 8.14. If then thou wilt suddenly and quickly destroy him who with so great labor was fashioned by thy command, to what purpose was he made? 8.15. And now I will speak out: About all mankind thou knowest best; but I will speak about thy people, for whom I am grieved 8.19. Therefore hear my voice, and understand my words, and I will speak before thee." The beginning of the words of Ezra's prayer, before he was taken up. He said: 8.20. O Lord who inhabitest eternity, whose eyes are exalted and whose upper chambers are in the air 8.21. whose throne is beyond measure and whose glory is beyond comprehension, before whom the hosts of angels stand trembling 8.22. and at whose command they are changed to wind and fire, whose word is sure and whose utterances are certain, whose ordice is strong and whose command is terrible 8.31. For we and our fathers have passed our lives in ways that bring death, but thou, because of us sinners, are called merciful. 8.32. For if thou hast desired to have pity on us, who have no works of righteousness, then thou wilt be called merciful. 8.36. For in this, O Lord, thy righteousness and goodness will be declared, when thou art merciful to those who have no store of good works. 8.44. But man, who has been formed by thy hands and is called thy own image because he is made like thee, and for whose sake thou hast formed all things -- hast thou also made him like the farmer's seed? 8.45. No, O Lord who art over us! But spare thy people and have mercy on thy inheritance, for thou hast mercy on thy own creation. 8.50. For many miseries will affect those who inhabit the world in the last times, because they have walked in great pride. 8.51. But think of your own case, and inquire concerning the glory of those who are like yourself 8.52. because it is for you that paradise is opened, the tree of life is planted, the age to come is prepared, plenty is provided, a city is built, rest is appointed, goodness is established and wisdom perfected beforehand. 8.53. The root of evil is sealed up from you, illness is banished from you, and death is hidden; hell has fled and corruption has been forgotten; 12.42. For of all the prophets you alone are left to us, like a cluster of grapes from the vintage, and like a lamp in a dark place, and like a haven for a ship saved from a storm. 13.42. that there at least they might keep their statutes which they had not kept in their own land. 14.5. and I told him many wondrous things, and showed him the secrets of the times and declared to him the end of the times. Then I commanded him, saying 14.9. for you shall be taken up from among men, and henceforth you shall live with my Son and with those who are like you, until the times are ended. 14.26. And when you have finished, some things you shall make public, and some you shall deliver in secret to the wise; tomorrow at this hour you shall begin to write. 14.27. Then I went as he commanded me, and I gathered all the people together, and said 14.28. Hear these words, O Israel 14.29. At first our fathers dwelt as aliens in Egypt, and they were delivered from there 14.30. and received the law of life, which they did not keep, which you also have transgressed after them. 14.31. Then land was given to you for a possession in the land of Zion; but you and your fathers committed iniquity and did not keep the ways which the Most High commanded you. 14.32. And because he is a righteous judge, in due time he took from you what he had given. 14.33. And now you are here, and your brethren are farther in the interior. 14.34. If you, then, will rule over your minds and discipline your hearts, you shall be kept alive, and after death you shall obtain mercy. 14.35. For after death the judgment will come, when we shall live again; and then the names of the righteous will become manifest, and the deeds of the ungodly will be disclosed. 14.36. But let no one come to me now, and let no one seek me for forty days. 14.45. And when the forty days were ended, the Most High spoke to me, saying, "Make public the twenty-four books that you wrote first and let the worthy and the unworthy read them; 14.46. but keep the seventy that were written last, in order to give them to the wise among your people. 14.47. For in them is the spring of understanding, the fountain of wisdom, and the river of knowledge. 14.48. And I did so. |
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