4 Esdras 10

²and we all overthrew the lights, and all my citizens rose up to comfort me, and I was quiet until the other day at night.

³And it came to pass, when all were quiet to comfort me, that I might be quiet: and I arose in the night, and fled: and came as thou seest into this field.

⁴And I mean now not to return into the city, but to stay here: and neither to eat, nor drink, but without intermission to mourn, and to fast until I die.

⁵And I left the talk wherein I was, and with anger answered her, and said:

⁶Thou fool above all woman, seest thou not our mourning, & what things chance to us?

⁷Because Sion our mother is sorrowful with all sorrow, and humbled, and mourneth most bitterly.

⁸And now whereas we all mourn, and are sad: whereas we are sorrowful, & art thou sorrowful for one son?

⁹For ask the earth, and it will tell thee: that it is she, that ought to lament the fall of so many things that spring upon it.

¹⁰And of her were all born from the beginning, and others shall come: and behold, almost all walk into perdition, and the multitude of them cometh to destruction.

¹¹And who then ought to mourn more, but she that hath lost so great a multitude, rather than thou which art sorry for one?

¹²And if thou say unto me, that my mourning is not like the earth's: because I have lost the fruit of my womb, which I bare with sorrows, and brought forth with pains:

¹³but the earth according to the manner of the earth, and the present multitude in it hath departed as it came: and I say to thee,

¹⁴as thou hast brought forth with pain, so the earth also giveth her fruit for man from the beginning to him that made her.

¹⁵Now therefore keep in with thy sorrow, and bear stoutly the chances that have befallen thee.

¹⁶For if thou justify the end of God, thou shalt in time both receive his counsel, and also in such things thou shalt be praised.

¹⁷Go in therefore into the city to thy husband. And she said to me:

¹⁸I will not do it, neither will I enter into the city, but here will I die.

¹⁹And I added yet to speak to her, and said:

²⁰Do not this word, but consent to him that counseleth thee. For how many are the chances of Sion? Take comfort for the sorrow of Jerusalem.

²¹For thou seest that our sanctification is made

²²and our psalter is humbled, and hymn is silent, and our exultation is dissolved, and the light of our candlestick is extinguished, and the ark of our testament is taken for spoil, and our holy things are contaminated, and the name that is invocated upon us is almost profaned: and our children have suffered contumely, and our Priests are burnt, and our Levites are gone into captivity, and our virgins are deflowered, and our wives have suffered rape, and our just men are violently taken, and our little ones are lost, and our young men are in bondage, and our valiants are made impotent:

²³and that which is greatest of all, the seal of Sion, because she is unsealed of her glory: For she is also delivered into the hands of them that hate us.

²⁴Thou therefore shake off thy great heaviness, and lay away from thee the multitude of sorrows, that the Strong may be propitious to thee again, and the Highest will give thee rest, rest from thy labours.

²⁵And it came to pass, when I spake to her, her face did shine suddenly, and her shape, and her visage was made glistering, so that I was afraid exceedingly at her, and thought what this thing should be.

²⁶And behold, suddenly she put forth a great sound of a voice full of fear, that the earth was moved at the woman's sound. And I saw:

²⁷and behold, the woman did no more appear unto me, but a city was built, & a place was shewed of great foundations: and I was afraid, and crying with a loud voice I said:

²⁸Where is Uriel the Angel that from the beginning came to me? For he made me come in multitude in excess of this mind, & my end is made into corruption, & my prayer into reproach.

²⁹And when I was speaking these things, behold he came to me, and saw me.

³⁰And behold I was laid as dead, and my understanding was alienated, and he held my right hand, and strengthened me and set me upon my feet, and said to me:

³¹What aileth thee? And why is thy understanding, and the sense of thy heart troubled, and why art thou troubled? And I said?:

³²Because thou hast forsaken me, and I indeed have done according to thy words, and went out into the field: and behold, I have seen, and do see that which I cannot utter. And he said to me:

³³Stand like a man, and I will move thee. And I said:

³⁴Speak thou my Lord in me, forsake me not, that I die not in vain:

³⁵because I have seen things that I knew not, and I do hear things that I know not.

³⁶Or is my sense deceived, and doth my soul dream?

³⁷Now therefore I beseech thee, that thou shew unto thy servant concerning this trance. And he answered me, and said:

³⁸Hear me, and I will teach thee, and will tell thee of what things thou art afraid: because the Highest hath revealed unto thee many mysteries.

³⁹He hath seen thy right way, that without intermission thou was sorrowful for thy people, and didst mourn exceedingly for Sion.

⁴⁰This therefore is the understanding of the vision which appeared to thee a little before.

⁴¹The woman whom thou sawest mourning, thou beganst to comfort her.

⁴²And now thou seest not the form of the woman, but there appeared to thee a city to be built.

⁴³And because she told thee of the fall of her son, this is the interpretation.

⁴⁴This woman which thou sawest, she is Sion, and whereas she told thee of her, whom now also thou shalt see, as a city builded.

⁴⁵And whereas she told thee, that she was barren thirty years: for the which there were thirty years, when there was not yet oblation offered in it.

⁴⁶And it came to pass after thirty years, Salomon built the city, and offered oblations: then it was, when the barren bare a child.

⁴⁷And that which she said unto thee, that she nourished him with labour, this was the habitation in Jerusalem.

⁴⁸And whereas she said to thee, that my son coming into the bride chamber died, and that a fall chanced unto him, this was the ruin of Jerusalem that is made.

⁴⁹And behold, thou hast seen the similitude of her: and because she lamented her son, thou beganst to comfort her: and of these things that have chanced, these were to be opened to thee.

⁵⁰And now the Highest seeth that thou wast sorry from the heart: and because with thy whole heart thou sufferest for her, he hath shewed thee the clearness of her glory, and the fairness of her beauty.

⁵¹For therefore did he say to thee, that thou shouldest tarry in a field where house is not built.

⁵²For I knew that the Highest began to shew thee these things:

⁵³therefore I said unto thee, that thou shouldest go

⁵⁴For the work of man's building could not be born in the place, where the city of the Highest began to be shewed.

⁵⁵Thou therefore fear not, neither let thy heart dread: but go in, and see the beauty, and greatness of the building, as much as the sight of thine eyes is capable to see:

⁵⁶and afterward thou shalt hear as much, as the hearing of thine ears is capable to hear.

⁵⁷For thou art blessed above many, and art called with the Highest as few.

⁵⁸And tomorrow night thou shalt tarry here.

⁵⁹and the Highest will shew thee those visions of the things on high, which the Highest will do to them that inhabit upon the earth in the later days.

⁶⁰And I slept that night, and the other next, as he had said to me.