2 Esdras 9 - New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised (NRSVA)

More about the Signs of the End

9 He answered me and said, ‘Measure carefully in your mind, and when you see that some of the predicted signs have occurred, ² then you will know that it is the very time when the Most High is about to visit the world that he has made. ³ So when there shall appear in the world earthquakes, tumult of peoples, intrigues of nations, wavering of leaders, confusion of princes, ⁴ then you will know that it was of these that the Most High spoke from the days that were of old, from the beginning. ⁵ For just as with everything that has occurred in the world, the beginning is evident,^[a] and the end manifest; ⁶ so also are the times of the Most High: the beginnings are manifest in wonders and mighty works, and the end in penalties^[b] and in signs.

⁷ ‘It shall be that all who will be saved and will be able to escape on account of their works, or on account of the faith by which they have believed, ⁸ will survive the dangers that have been predicted, and will see my salvation in my land and within my borders, which I have sanctified for myself from the beginning. ⁹ Then those who have now abused my ways shall be amazed, and those who have rejected them with contempt shall live in torments. ¹⁰ For as many as did not acknowledge me in their lifetime, though they received my benefits, ¹¹ and as many as scorned my law while they still had freedom, and did not understand but despised it^[c] while an opportunity of repentance was still open to them, ¹² these must in torment acknowledge it^[d] after death. ¹³ Therefore, do not continue to be curious about how the ungodly will be punished; but inquire how the righteous will be saved, those to whom the age belongs and for whose sake the age was made.’^[e]

The Argument Recapitulated

¹⁴ I answered and said, ¹⁵ ‘I said before, and I say now, and will say it again: there are more who perish than those who will be saved, ¹⁶ as a wave is greater than a drop of water.’

¹⁷ He answered me and said, ‘As is the field, so is the seed; and as are the flowers, so are the colours; and as is the work, so is the product; and as is the farmer, so is the threshing-floor. ¹⁸ For there was a time in this age when I was preparing for those who now exist, before the world was made for them to live in, and no one opposed me then, for no one existed; ¹⁹ but now those who have been created in this world, which is supplied both with an unfailing table and an inexhaustible pasture,^[f] have become corrupt in their ways. ²⁰ So I considered my world, and saw that it was lost. I saw that my earth was in peril because of the devices of those who^[g] had come into it. ²¹ And I saw and spared some^[h] with great difficulty, and saved for myself one grape out of a cluster, and one plant out of a great forest.^{[i] 22} So let the multitude perish that has been born in vain, but let my grape and my plant be saved, because with much labour I have perfected them.

²³ ‘Now, if you will let seven days more pass—do not, however, fast during them, ²⁴ but go into a field of flowers where no house has been built, and eat only of the flowers of the field, and taste no meat and drink no wine, but eat only flowers— ²⁵ and pray to the Most High continually, then I will come and talk with you.’

The Abiding Glory of the Mosaic Law

²⁶ So I went, as he directed me, into the field that is called Ardat;^[j] there I sat among the flowers and ate of the plants of the field, and the nourishment they afforded satisfied me. ²⁷ After seven days, while I lay on the grass, my heart was troubled again as it was before. ²⁸ Then my mouth was opened, and I began to speak before the Most High, and said, ²⁹ ‘O Lord, you showed yourself among us, to our ancestors in the wilderness when they came out from Egypt and when they came into the untrodden and unfruitful wilderness; ³⁰ and you said, “Hear me, O Israel, and give heed to my words, O descendants of Jacob. ³¹ For I sow my law in you, and it shall bring forth fruit in you, and you shall be glorified through it for ever.” ³² But though our ancestors received the law, they did not keep it and did not observe the^[k] statutes; yet the fruit of the law did not perish—for it could not, because it was yours. ³³ Yet those who received it perished, because they did not keep what had been sown in them. ³⁴ Now this is the general rule that, when the ground has received seed, or the sea a ship, or any dish food or drink, and when it comes about that what was sown or what was launched or what was put in is destroyed, ³⁵ they are destroyed, but the things that held them remain; yet with us it has not been so. ³⁶ For we who have received the law and sinned will perish, as well as our hearts that received it; ³⁷ the law, however, does not perish but survives in its glory.’

The Vision of a Weeping Woman

³⁸ When I said these things in my heart, I looked around,^[l] and on my right I saw a woman; she was mourning and weeping with a loud voice, and was deeply grieved at heart; her clothes were torn, and there were ashes on her head. ³⁹ Then I dismissed the thoughts with which I had been engaged, and turned to her ⁴⁰ and said to her, ‘Why are you weeping, and why are you grieved at heart?’

⁴¹ She said to me, ‘Let me alone, my lord, so that I may weep for myself and continue to mourn, for I am greatly embittered in spirit and deeply distressed.’

⁴² I said to her, ‘What has happened to you? Tell me.’

⁴³ And she said to me, ‘Your servant was barren and had no child, though I lived with my husband for thirty years. ⁴⁴ Every hour and every day during those thirty years I prayed to the Most High, night and day. ⁴⁵ And after thirty years God heard your servant, and looked upon my low estate, and considered my distress, and gave me a son. I rejoiced greatly over him, I and my husband and all my neighbours;^[m] and we gave great glory to the Mighty One. ⁴⁶ And I brought him up with much care. ⁴⁷ So when he grew up and I came to take a wife for him, I set a day for the marriage feast.

Footnotes

1. 2 Esdras 9:5 Syr: Ethiop is in the word; Meaning of Lat uncertain
2. 2 Esdras 9:6 Syr: Lat Ethiop in effects
3. 2 Esdras 9:11 Or me
4. 2 Esdras 9:12 Or me
5. 2 Esdras 9:13 Syr: Lat saved, and whose is the age and for whose sake the age was made and when
6. 2 Esdras 9:19 Cn: Lat law
7. 2 Esdras 9:20 Cn: Lat devices that
8. 2 Esdras 9:21 Lat them
9. 2 Esdras 9:21 Syr Ethiop Arab 1: Lat tribe
10. 2 Esdras 9:26 Syr Ethiop Arpad; Arm Ardab
11. 2 Esdras 9:32 Lat my
12. 2 Esdras 9:38 Syr Arab Arm: Lat I looked about me with my eyes
13. 2 Esdras 9:45 Literally all my citizens