4 Esdras 14

²And behold a voice came forth against me out of a bush, and said: Esdras, Esdras: and I said: Lo here I am Lord. And I arose upon my feet. And he said to me:

³Revealing I was revealed upon the bush, and spake to Moyses, when the people served in Ægypt, Exod. 3.

⁴and I sent him, and brought my people out of Ægypt, and brought him upon mount Sina, and held him with me many days.

⁵And I told him many marvelous things, and shewed him the secrets of times, and the end: and I commanded him, saying:

⁶These words thou shalt publish abroad, and these thou shalt hide.

⁷And now to thee I say:

⁸The signs which I have shewed, and the dreams which thou hast seen, and the interpretations which thou hast seen, lay them up in thy heart.

⁹For thou shalt be received of all, thou shalt be converted the residue with thy counsel, and with the like to thee, till the times be finished.

¹⁰Because the world hath lost his youth, & the times draw near to wax old.

¹¹For the world is divided by twelve parts, and the tenth part, and half of the tenth part are passed:

¹²and there remaineth hereafter the half of the tenth part.

¹³Now therefore dispose thy house, and correct thy people, & comfort the humble of them, & forsake now corruption.

¹⁴And it came to pass the third day, and I sat under an oak.

¹⁵for the evils which thou hast seen to have chanced now, worse than these will they do again: . 1. Ioan. 2.

¹⁶for look how much the world shall become weak by age, so much shall evils be multiplied upon the inhabitants.

¹⁷For truth hath removed itself farther off, and lying hath approached, for now the vision which thou sawest hasteneth to come.

¹⁸And I answered, and said before thee o Lord:

¹⁹For behold I will go, as thou hast commanded me, & will rebuke the people that now is. But them that shall yet be born, who shall admonish?

²⁰The world therefore is set in darkness, and they that dwell in it without light.

²¹Because thy law is burnt, therefore no man knoweth the works that have been done by thee, or that shall begin.

²²For if I have found grace with thee, send the Holy Ghost to me, & I will write all that hath been done in the world from the beginning, the things that were written in thy law, that men may find the path: and they that will live in the later times, may live.

²³And he answered me, and said: Go gather together the people, and thou shalt say to them, that they seek thee not for forty days.

²⁴And do thou prepare thee many tables of box, and take with thee Sarea, Dabria, Salemia, Echanus, and Asiel, these five which are ready to write swiftly.

²⁵And come hither, and I will light in thy heart a candle of understanding, which shall not be put out till the things be finished, which thou shalt begin to write.

²⁶And then some things thou shalt open to the perfect, some thou shalt deliver secretly to the wise. For tomorrow this hour thou shalt begin to write.

²⁷And I went as he commanded me, and gathered together all the people, and said:

²⁸Hear Israel these words:

²⁹Our fathers were pilgrims from the beginning in Ægypt, and were delivered from thence. . . Act. 7.

³⁰And they received the law of life, which they kept not, which you also after them have transgressed:

³¹and the land was given you by lot, and the land of Sion, and your fathers, and you have done iniquity, and have not kept the ways which the Highest commanded you.

³²And whereas he is a just judge, he hath taken from you in time that which he had given.

³³And now you are here, and your brethren are among you.

³⁴If then you will rule over your sense, & instruct your heart, you shall be preserved alive, and after death shall obtain mercy.

³⁵For the judgement shall come after death, when we shall return to life again: and then the names of the just shall appear, and the deeds of the impious shall be shewed.

³⁶Let no man therefore come to me now, nor

³⁷And I took the five men, as he commanded me, and we went forth into the field, and tarried there.

³⁸And I was come to the morrow, and behold a voice called me, saying: Esdras open thy mouth, and drink that which I will give thee to drink. Ezech. 3.

³⁹And I opened my mouth, and behold a full cup was brought me, this was full as it were with water: but the colour thereof like as fire.

⁴⁰And I took it, and drank, and when I had drunken of it, my heart was tormented with understanding, and wisdom grew into my breast. For my spirit was kept by memory.

⁴¹And my mouth was opened, and was shut no more.

⁴²The Highest gave understanding unto the five men, and they wrote excesses of the night which were spoken, which they knew not.

⁴³And at night they did eat bread, but I spake by day, and by night held not my peace.

⁴⁴And there were written in the forty days two hundred four books.

⁴⁵And it came to pass when they had ended the forty days, the Highest spake, saying:

⁴⁶The former things which thou hast written, set abroad, and let the worthy and unworthy read: but the last seventy books thou shalt keep, that thou mayest deliver them to the wise of thy people.

⁴⁷For in these is the vein of understanding, and the fountain of wisdom, and the stream of knowledge. And I did so.