The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Esdras 04
1 The angel who was sent to me, whose
name was Uriel, gave me an answer,
2 and said to me, “Your understanding
has utterly failed you regarding this world.
Do you think you can comprehend the way
of the Most High?”
3 Then I said, “Yes, my Lord.”
He answered me, “I have been sent to
show you three ways, and to set before you
three problems.
4 If you can solve one for me, I also
will show you the way that you desire to
see, and I will teach you why the heart is
wicked.”
5 I said, “Say on, my Lord.”
Then said he to me, “Go, weigh
for me the weight of fire, or
measure for me blast of wind, or
call back for me the day that is past.
6 Then answered I and said, “Who of the
sons of men is able to do this, that you
should ask me about such things?
7 He said to me, “If I had asked you, ‘How
many dwellings are there in the heart of
the sea? Or how many springs are there
at the fountain head of the deep? Or how
many streams are above the firmament?
Or which are the exits †of hell? Or which
are the entrances of paradise?
8 perhaps you would say to me, ‘I never
wentdowninto thedeep, or as yetintohell,
neither did I ever climb up into heaven.’
9 Nevertheless now I have only asked
you about the fire, wind, and the day,
things which you have experienced, and
from which you can’t be separated, and yet
have yougivenmeno answer aboutthem.”
10 He said moreover to me, “You can’t
understand your own things that you grew
up with.
11 How then can your mind comprehend
the way ofthe Most High? How can he who
is already worn out with the corrupted
world understand incorruption?”
‡When I heard these things,
I fell on my face
12 and said to him, “It would have been
better if we weren’t here at all,
than that we should come here
and live in the midst of ungodliness,
and suffer, and not know why.
13 He answered me, and said, §“A forest
of the trees of the field went out, and took
counsel together,
14 and said, ‘Come! Let’s go and make
war against the sea, that it may depart
away before us, and that we may make
ourselves more forests.
15 The waves of the sea also in like manner
took counsel together, and said, ‘Come!
Let’s go up and subdue the forest of the
plain, that there also we may gain more
territory.
16 The counsel of the wood was in vain,
for the fire came and consumed it.
17 Likewise also the counsel of the waves
of the sea, for the sand stood up and
stopped them.
18 If you were judge now between these
two, which would you justify, or which
would you condemn?
19 I answered and said, “It is a foolish
counsel that they both have taken, for the
ground is given to the wood, and the place
of the sea is given to bear its waves.
20 Then answered he me, and said, “You
have given a right judgment. Why don’t
you judge your own case?
21 For just as the ground is given to the
wood, and the sea to its waves, even so
those who dwell upon the earth may
understand nothing but what is upon the
earth. Only he who dwells above
the heavens understands the
things that are above the
height of the heavens.
22 Then answered I and said, “I beg you,
O Lord, why has the power of
understanding been given to me?
23 For it was notin my mind to be curious
of the ways above, but of such things as
pass by us daily, because Israel is given up
as a reproach to the heathen. The people
whom you have loved have been given
over to ungodly nations. The law of our
forefathers is made of no effect, and the
written covenants are nowhere regarded.
24 We pass away out of the world like
locusts. Our life is like a vapor, and we
aren’t worthy to obtain mercy.
25 What will he then do for his name by
which we are called? I have asked about
these things.
26 Then he answered me, and said, “If
you are alive you will see, and if you live
long, you will marvel, for the world
hastens quickly to pass away.
27 For it is not able to bear the things that
are promised to the righteous in the times
to come; for this world is full of sadness
and infirmities.
28 For the evil† about which you asked
me has been sown, but its harvest hasn’t
yet come.
29 If therefore that which is sown isn’t
reaped, and if the place where the evil is
sown doesn’t pass away, the field where
the good is sown won’t come.
30 For a grain of evil seed was sown in
the heart of Adam from the beginning, and
how much wickedness it has produced to
this time! How much more it will yet
produce until the time of threshing comes!
31 Ponder now by yourself, how much
fruit of wickedness a grain of evil seed has
produced.
32 When the grains which are without
number are sown, how great a threshing
floor they will fill!”
33 Then I answered and said, ‡“How
long? When willthese things come topass?
Why are our years few and evil?”
34 He answered me, and said, “Don’t
hurry faster than the Most High; for your
haste is§ for your own self, but he who is
above hurries on behalf of many.
35 Didn’t the souls of the righteous ask
question of these things in their chambers,
saying, ‘How long †will we be here? When
does the fruit of the threshing floor come?’
36 To them, Jeremiel the archangel answered,
‘When the number is fulfilled of
those who are like you. For he has weighed
the world in the balance.
37 By measure, he has measured the
times. By number, he has counted the
seasons. He won’t ‡move or stir them until
that measure is fulfilled.
38 Then I answered, “O sovereign Lord,
all of us are full of ungodliness.
39 Perhaps it is for our sakes that the
threshing time of the righteous is kept
back—because of the sins of those who
dwell on the earth.”
40 So he answered me, “Go your way
to a woman with child, and ask of her
when she has fulfilled her nine months, if
her womb may keep the baby any longer
within her.”
41 Then I said, “No, Lord, that can it not.”
He said to me, “In Hades, the chambers
of souls are like the womb.
42 For just like a woman in labor hurries
to escape the anguish of the labor pains,
even so these places hurry to deliver those
things that are committedto themfromthe
beginning.
43 Then you will be shown those things
which you desire to see.”
44 Then I answered, “If I have found
favor in your sight, and if it is
possible, and if I am worthy
45 show me this also, whether there is
more to come than is past, or whether the
greater part has gone over us.
46 For what is gone I know, but I don’t
know what is to come.”
47 He said to me, “Stand up on my right
side, and I will explain the parable to you.”
48 So I stood, looked, and saw a hot burning
oven passed by before me. It happened
that when the flame had gone by I looked,
and saw that the smoke remained.
49 After this, a watery cloud passed in
front of me, and sent down much rain with
a storm. When the stormy rain was past,
the drops still remained in it.
50 Then said he to me, “Consider with
yourself; as the rain is more than the
drops, and the fire is greater than the
smoke, so the quantity which is past was
far greater; but the drops and the smoke
still remained.
51 Then I prayed, and said, “Do you think
that I will live until that time? Or who will
be alive in those days?
52 He answered me, “As for the signs you
asked me about, I may tell you of them in
part; but I wasn’t sent to tell you about
your life, for I don’t know.