4 Esdras 8

²And I will speak a similitude Esdras before thee. For as thou shalt ask the earth, and it will tell thee, that it will give much more earth whereof earthen work may be made, but a little dust whereof gold is made: so also is the act of this present world.

³Many indeed are created, but few shall be saved.

⁴And I answered, and said: Then o soul swallow up the sense, and devour that which is wise.

⁵For thou art agreed to obey, and willing to prophesy. For there is no space given thee but only to live.

⁶O Lord if thou wilt not permit thy servant, that we pray before thee, and thou give us seed to the heart, and tillage to the understanding, whereof may the fruit be made, whereby every corrupt person may live, that shall bear the place of a man?

⁷For thou art alone, and we are one workmanship of thy hands, as thou hast spoken:

⁸and as now the body made in the matrice, and thou doest give the members, thy creature is preserved in fire and water: and nine months thy workmanship doth suffer thy creature that is created in it:

⁹and itself that keepeth, and that which is kept, both shall be preserved: & the matrice being preserved rendereth again at some time the things that are grown in it.

¹⁰For thou hast commanded of the members, that is the breasts to give milk unto the fruit of the breasts,

¹¹that the thing which is made, may be nourished till a certain time, and afterward thou mayest dispose him to thy mercy.

¹²For thou hast, brought him up in thy justice, and hast instructed him in thy law, and hast corrected him in thy understanding:

¹³and thou shalt mortify him, as thy creature: and shalt give him life, as thy work.

¹⁴If then thou wilt destroy him that is made with so great labours: it is easy by the commandment to be ordained, that also which was made, might be reserved.

¹⁵And now Lord I will speak, of every man thou rather knowest: but concerning thy people, for which I am sorrowful:

¹⁶and concerning thine inheritance, for which I mourn, and for Israel for whom I am pensive, and concerning Jacob, for whom I am sorrowful.

¹⁷Therefore will I begin to pray before thee for me, and for them: because I see our defaults that inhabit the earth.

¹⁸But I have heard of the celerity of the judge that shall be.

¹⁹Therefore hear my voice, and understand my word, and I will speak before thee.

²⁰The beginning of the words of Esdras before he was assumpted: and I said: Lord which inhabitest the world, whose eyes are elevated unto things on high and in the air:

²¹and whose throne is inestimable, and glory incomprehensible: by whom standeth an host of Angels with trembling,

²²whose keeping is turned in wind and fire, thou whose word is true, and sayings permanent:

²³whose commandment is strong, and disposition terrible: whose look dryeth up the depths, and indignation maketh the mountains to melt, and truth doth testify.

²⁴Hear the prayer of thy servant, and with thine ears receive the petition of thy creature.

²⁵For whilst I live, I will speak: & whilst I understand, I will answer:

²⁶Neither do thou respect the sins of thy people, but them that serve thee in truth.

²⁷Neither do thou attend the impious endeavours of the nations, but them that with sorrows have kept thy testimonies.

²⁸Neither think thou of them that in thy sight have converst falsely, but remember them that according to thy will have known thy fear.

²⁹Neither be thou willing to destroy them that have had the manners of beasts: but respect them that have taught thy law gloriously.

³⁰Neither have indignation towards them, which are judged worse than beasts: but love them that always have confidence in thy justice and glory.

³¹Because we and our fathers languish with such diseases: but thou for sinners shalt be called merciful.

³²For if thou shalt be desirous to have mercy on us, then thou shalt be called merciful, to us having no works of justice.

³³For the just which

³⁴For what is man, that thou art angry with him: or the corruptible kind, that thou art so bitter touching it?

³⁵For in truth there is no man of them that be born, which hath not done impiously, and of them that confess, which have not sinned. 2.

³⁶For in this shall thy justice be declared, and thy goodness, o Lord, when thou shalt have mercy on them, that have no substance of good works.

³⁷And he answered me, and said: Thou hast spoken some things rightly: and according to thy words, so also shall it be done,

³⁸because I will not indeed think upon the work of them that have sinned before death, before the judgement, before perdition:

³⁹but I will rejoice upon the creature of the just, and I will remember their pilgrimage also, and salvation, and receiving of reward.

⁴⁰Therefore as I have spoken, so also it is.

⁴¹For as the husbandman soweth upon the ground many seeds, and planteth many plants, but not all which were sown in time are preserved, nor yet all that were planted shall take root: so they also that are sown in the world, shall not all be saved. . & 20.

⁴²And I answered, and said: If I have found grace, let me speak.

⁴³As the seed of the husbandman, if it come not up, or receive not the rain in time, if it be corrupted with much rain, perisheth:

⁴⁴so likewise also man who made with thy hands, and thou named his image: because thou art likened to him, for whom thou hast made all things, and hast likened him to the seed of the husbandman.

⁴⁵Be not angry upon us, but spare thy people, and have mercy on thy inheritance. And thou hast mercy on thy creature.

⁴⁶And he answered me, and said: The things that are present to them that are present, and that shall be, to them that shall be.

⁴⁷For thou lackest much to be able to love my creature above me: and to thee often times, even to thyself I have approached, but to the unjust never.

⁴⁸But in this also thou art marvelous before the Highest,

⁴⁹because thou hast humbled thyself as becometh thee: and hast not judged thyself, that among the just thou mayst be very much glorified.

⁵⁰For which cause many miseries, and miserable things shall be done to them that inhabit the world in the later days: because they have walked in much pride.

⁵¹But thou for thyself understand, and for them that are like unto thee seek glory.

⁵²For to you paradise is open, the tree of life is planted, time to come is prepared, aboundance is prepared, a city is builded, rest is approved, goodness is perfited, & perfit wisdom.

⁵³The root of evil is signed from you: infirmity, & moth is hid from you: and corruption is fled into hell in oblivion.

⁵⁴Sorrows are past, & the treasure of immortality is shewed in the end.

⁵⁵Add not therefore inquiring of the multitude of them that perish.

⁵⁶For they also receiving liberty have despised the Highest, and contemned his law, and forsaken his ways.

⁵⁷Yea and moreover they have trodden down his just ones.

⁵⁸and have said in their heart, that there is no God: and that, knowing that they die. . & 52.

⁵⁹For as the things aforesaid shall receive you: so thirst and torment, which are prepared shall take them: for he would not man to be destroyed.

⁶⁰But they themselves also which are created, have defiled his name which made them: and have been unkind to him that prepared life.

⁶¹Wherefore my judgement now approacheth.

⁶²Which things I have not shewed to all, but to thee, and to few like unto thee. And I answered, and said:

⁶³Behold now Lord thou hast shewed me a multitude of signs, which thou wilt begin to do in the latter times, but thou hast not shewed me at what time.