II Esdras - Chapter 14


2Esdr 14:1
And it came to pass upon the third day, I sat under an oak,
and, behold, there came a voice out of a bush over against me,
and said, Esdras, Esdras.

2Esdr 14:2
And I said, Here am I, Lord And I stood up upon my feet.

2Esdr 14:3
Then said he unto me, In the bush I did manifestly reveal
myself unto Moses, and talked with him, when my people served in
Egypt:

2Esdr 14:4
And I sent him and led my people out of Egypt, and brought
him up to the mount of where I held him by me a long season,

2Esdr 14:5
And told him many wondrous things, and shewed him the secrets
of the times, and the end; and commanded him, saying,

2Esdr 14:6
These words shalt thou declare, and these shalt thou hide.

2Esdr 14:7
And now I say unto thee,

2Esdr 14:8
That thou lay up in thy heart the signs that I have shewed,
and the dreams that thou hast seen, and the interpretations
which thou hast heard:

2Esdr 14:9
For thou shalt be taken away from all, and from henceforth
thou shalt remain with my Son, and with such as be like thee,
until the times be ended.

2Esdr 14:10
For the world hath lost his youth, and the times begin to wax
old.

2Esdr 14:11
For the world is divided into twelve parts, and the ten parts
of it are gone already, and half of a tenth part:

2Esdr 14:12
And there remaineth that which is after the half of the tenth
part.

2Esdr 14:13
Now therefore set thine house in order, and reprove thy
people, comfort such of them as be in trouble, and now renounce
corruption,

2Esdr 14:14
Let go from thee mortal thoughts, cast away the burdens of
man, put off now the weak nature,

2Esdr 14:15
And set aside the thoughts that are most heavy unto thee, and
haste thee to flee from these times.

2Esdr 14:16
For yet greater evils than those which thou hast seen happen
shall be done hereafter.

2Esdr 14:17
For look how much the world shall be weaker through age, so
much the more shall evils increase upon them that dwell therein.

2Esdr 14:18
For the time is fled far away, and leasing is hard at hand:
for now hasteth the vision to come, which thou hast seen.

2Esdr 14:19
Then answered I before thee, and said,

2Esdr 14:20
Behold, Lord, I will go, as thou hast commanded me, and
reprove the people which are present: but they that shall be
born afterward, who shall admonish them? thus the world is set
in darkness, and they that dwell therein are without light.

2Esdr 14:21
For thy law is burnt, therefore no man knoweth the things
that are done of thee, or the work that shall begin.

2Esdr 14:22
But if I have found grace before thee, send the Holy Ghost
into me, and I shall write all that hath been done in the world
since the beginning, which were written in thy law, that men may
find thy path, and that they which will live in the latter days
may live.

2Esdr 14:23
And he answered me, saying, Go thy way, gather the people
together, and say unto them, that they seek thee not for forty
days.

2Esdr 14:24
But look thou prepare thee many box trees, and take with thee
Sarea, Dabria, Selemia, Ecanus, and Asiel, these five which are
ready to write swiftly;

2Esdr 14:25
And come hither, and I shall light a candle of understanding
in thine heart, which shall not be put out, till the things be
performed which thou shalt begin to write.

2Esdr 14:26
And when thou hast done, some things shalt thou publish, and
some things shalt thou shew secretly to the wise: to morrow this
hour shalt thou begin to write.

2Esdr 14:27
Then went I forth, as he commanded, and gathered all the
people together, and said,

2Esdr 14:28
Hear these words, O Israel.

2Esdr 14:29
Our fathers at the beginning were strangers in Egypt, from
whence they were delivered:

2Esdr 14:30
And received the law of life, which they kept not, which ye
also have transgressed after them.

2Esdr 14:31
Then was the land, even the land of Sion, parted among you by
lot: but your fathers, and ye yourselves, have done
unrighteousness, and have not kept the ways which the Highest
commanded you.

2Esdr 14:32
And forasmuch as he is a righteous judge, he took from you in
time the thing that he had given you.

2Esdr 14:33
And now are ye here, and your brethren among you.

2Esdr 14:34
Therefore if so be that ye will subdue your own
understanding, and reform your hearts, ye shall be kept alive
and after death ye shall obtain mercy.

2Esdr 14:35
For after death shall the judgment come, when we shall live
again: and then shall the names of the righteous be manifest,
and the works of the ungodly shall be declared.

2Esdr 14:36
Let no man therefore come unto me now, nor seek after me
these forty days.

2Esdr 14:37
So I took the five men, as he commanded me, and we went into
the field, and remained there.

2Esdr 14:38
And the next day, behold, a voice called me, saying, Esdras,
open thy mouth, and drink that I give thee to drink.

2Esdr 14:39
Then opened I my mouth, and, behold, he reached me a full
cup, which was full as it were with water, but the colour of it
was like fire.

2Esdr 14:40
And I took it, and drank: and when I had drunk of it, my
heart uttered understanding, and wisdom grew in my breast, for
my spirit strengthened my memory:

2Esdr 14:41
And my mouth was opened, and shut no more.

2Esdr 14:42
The Highest gave understanding unto the five men, and they
wrote the wonderful visions of the night that were told, which
they knew not: and they sat forty days, and they wrote in the
day, and at night they ate bread.

2Esdr 14:43
As for me. I spake in the day, and I held not my tongue by
night.

2Esdr 14:44
In forty days they wrote two hundred and four books.

2Esdr 14:45
And it came to pass, when the forty days were filled, that
the Highest spake, saying, The first that thou hast written
publish openly, that the worthy and unworthy may read it:

2Esdr 14:46
But keep the seventy last, that thou mayest deliver them only
to such as be wise among the people:

2Esdr 14:47
For in them is the spring of understanding, the fountain of
wisdom, and the stream of knowledge.

2Esdr 14:48
And I did so.