The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Esdras 09
1 He answered me, “Measure diligently
within yourself. When you see that
a certain part of the signs are past, which have
been told you beforehand,
2 then will you understand that it is the
very time in which the Most High will visit
the world which was made by him.
3 When earthquakes, tumult of peoples,
plans of nations, wavering of leaders, and
confusion of princes are seen in the world,
4 then will you understand that the Most
High spoke of these things from the days
that were of old, from the beginning.
5 For just as with everything that is made
in the world, the beginning †is evident 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 effects
and signs.
7 Everyone who will be saved, and will
be able to escape by his works, or by faith
by which they have believed,
8 will be preserved from the said perils,
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 now have abused my
ways will be amazed. Those who have
cast them away despitefully will live in
torments.
10 For as many as in their life have
received benefits, and yet have not known me,
11 and as many as have scorned my law,
while they still had liberty and when an
opportunity to repent was open to them,
didn’t understand, but despised ‡ it,
12 must know §it in torment after death.
13 Therefore don’t be curious any longer
how the ungodly will be punished, but
inquire how the righteous will be saved,
†those who the world belongs to, and for
whom the world was created.”
14 I answered,
15 “I have said before, and now speak,
and will say it again hereafter, that there
are more of those who perish than of those
who will be saved,
16 like a wave is greater than a drop.”
17 He answered me, “Just as the field is,
so also the seed. As the flowers are, so are
the colors. As the work is, so also is the
‡judgment on it. As is the farmer,
so also is his threshing floor.
For there was a time
in the world
18 when I was preparing for those who
now live, before the world was made for
them to dwell in. Then no one spoke
against me,
19 for §no one existed. But now those
who are created in this world that is
prepared, both †with a table that
doesn’t fail and a law which is
unsearchable, are corrupted in their ways.
20 So I considered my world, and behold,
it was destroyed, and my earth, and behold,
it was in peril, because of the plans
that had come into it.
21 I saw and spared them, but not greatly,
and saved myself a grape out of a cluster,
and a plant out of ‡a great forest.
22 Let the multitude perish then, which
were born in vain. Let my grape be saved,
andmyplant,for Ihavemade themperfect
with great labor.
23 Nevertheless, if you will wait seven
more days—however don’t fast in them,
24 but go into a field of flowers, where no
house is built, and eat only oftheflowers of
the field, and you shall taste no flesh, and
shall drink no wine, but shall eat flowers
only
25 and pray to the Most High continually,
then I will come and talk with you.”
26 So I went my way, just as he commanded me,
into the field which is called
§Ardat. There I sat among the flowers, and
ate of the herbs of the field, and this food
satisfied me.
27 It came to pass after seven days that
I lay on the grass, and my heart was
troubled again, like before.
28 My mouth was opened, and I began to
speak before the Lord Most High, and said,
29 “O Lord, you showed yourself among
us, to our fathers in the wilderness, when
they went out of Egypt, and when they
came into the wilderness, where no man
treads and that bears no fruit.
30 You said, ‘Hear me, O Israel. Heed my
words, O seed of Jacob.
31 For behold, I sow my law in you, and
it will bring forth fruit in you, and you will
be glorified in it forever.’
32 But our fathers, who received the
law, didn’t keep it, and didn’t observe the
statutes. The fruit of the law didn’t perish,
for it couldn’t, because it was yours.
33 Yet those who received it perished,
because they didn’t keep the thing that was
sown in them.
34 Behold, it is a custom that when the
ground has received seed, or the sea a ship,
or any vessel food or drink, and when it
comes to pass that that which is sown, or
that which is launched,
35 or the things which have been received,
should come to an end, these come
to an end, but the receptacles remain. Yet
with us, it doesn’t happen that way.
36 For we who have received the law will
perish by sin, along with our heart which
received it.
37 Notwithstanding the law doesn’t perish,
but remains in its honor.”
38 When I spoke these things in my heart,
I looked around me with my eyes, and
on my right side I saw a woman, and
behold, she mourned and wept with a loud
voice, and was much grieved in mind. Her
clothes were torn, and she had ashes on
her head.
39 Then let I my thoughts go in which I
was occupied, and turned myself to her,
40 and said to her, “Why are you weeping?
Why are you grieved in your mind?”
41 She said to me, “Leave me alone, my
Lord, that I may weep for myself and add
to my sorrow, for I am very troubled in my
mind, and brought very low.”
42 I said to her, “What ails you? Tell me.”
43 She said to me, “I, your servant, was
barren and had no child, though I had a
husband thirty years.
44 Every hour and every day these thirty
years I made my prayer to the Most High
day and night.
45 It came to pass after thirty years that
God heard me, your handmaid, and saw
my low estate, and considered my trouble,
and gave me a son. I rejoiced in him
greatly, I and my husband, and all my
†neighbors. We gave great honor to the
Mighty One.
46 I nourished him with great care.
47 So whenhe grew up, andI came to take
him a wife, I made him a feast day.