4 Esdras 6

²and before the voices of thunders sounded, and before the flashings of lightnings shined, and before the foundations of paradise were confirmed,

³and before beautiful flowers were seen, and before the moved powers were established, and before the innumerable hosts of Angels were gathered,

⁴and before the heights of the air were advanced, and before the firmaments were named, & before the chimneys were hot in Sion,

⁵& before the present years were searched out, and before their inventions that now sin, were put away, and they signed that made faith their treasure:

⁶then I thought, and they were made by me only, and not by any other: and the end by me, and not by any other.

⁷And I answered, and said: What separation of times shall there be? And when shall the end of the former be, and the beginning of that which followeth?

⁸And he said to me, from Abraham unto Isaac, when Jacob and Esau were born of him, the hand of Jacob held from the beginning the heel of Esau,

⁹for the end of this world is Esau, and the beginning of the next Jacob.

¹⁰The hand of a man between the heel and the hand. Ask no other thing Esdras.

¹¹And I answered, and said: O Lord Dominator, if I have found grace before thine eyes,

¹²I pray thee shew thy servant the end of thy signs, whereof thou didst shew me part the night before.

¹³And he answered, and said to me: Arise upon thy feet, and hear a voice most full of sound.

¹⁴And it shall be as it were a commotion, neither shall the place be moved wherein thou standest.

¹⁵Therefore when it speaketh be not thou afraid, because of the end is the word, and the foundation of the earth understood,

¹⁶for concerning them the word trembleth and is moved, for it knoweth that their end must be changed.

¹⁷And it came to pass, when I had heard, I rose upon my feet, and I heard: and behold a voice speaking, and the sound thereof as the sound of many waters:

¹⁸and it said: Behold the days come, and the time shall be when I will begin to approach, that I may visit the inhabitants upon the earth.

¹⁹And when I will begin to inquire of them that unjustly have hurt with their injustice, and when the humility of Sion shall be accomplished.

²⁰And when the world shall be oversigned that shall begin to pass, I will do these signs: Books shall be opened before the face of the firmament, and all shall see together,

²¹& infants of one year shall speak with their voices, and women with child shall bring forth untimely infants, not ripe, of three or four months, and shall live, and shall be raised up.

²²And suddenly shall appear sown places not sown, and full cellars shall suddenly be found empty:

²³and a trumpet shall sound; which when all shall hear, they will suddenly be afraid.

²⁴And it shall be in that time, friends as enemies shall overthrow friends, and the earth shall be afraid with them: and the veins of fountains shall stand, and shall not run in three hours:

²⁵and it shall be, every one that shall be left of all these, of whom I have foretold thee, he shall be saved, and shall see my salvation, and the end of your world.

²⁶And the men that are received, shall see, they that tasted not death from their nativity, and the heart of the inhabitants shall be turned into another sense.

²⁷For evil shall be put out, and deceit shall be extinguished,

²⁸but faith shall flourish, and corruption shall be overcome, and truth shall be shewed, which was without fruit so many days.

²⁹And it came to pass, when he spake to me, and I lo by little and little looked on him before whom I stood,

³⁰and he said to me these words: I am come to shew thee the time of the night to come.

³¹If therefore thou pray again, and fast again seven days, again I will tell thee greater things by the day which I have heard.

³²For thy voice is heard before the Highest. For the strong hath seen thy direction, and hath foreseen the chastity which thou hast had from thy youth:

³³and for this cause he hath sent me to shew thee all these

³⁴and hasten not with the former times to think vain things, that thou hasten not from the last times.

³⁵And it came to pass after these things, and I wept again, and in like manner I fasted seven days, to accomplish the three weeks, that were told me.

³⁶And it came to pass in the eighth night, and my heart was troubled again in me, and I began to speak before the Highest.

³⁷For my spirit was inflamed exceedingly, and my soul was distressed.

³⁸And I said: O Lord, speaking thou didst speak from the beginning of creature from the first day, saying: Let heaven be made and earth: and thy word was a perfect work.

³⁹And then there was spirit, and darkness was carried about, and silence, the sound of the voice of man was not yet from thee.

⁴⁰Then thou didst command the lightsome light to be brought forth of thy treasures, whereby thy work might appear.

⁴¹And in the second day thou didst create the spirit of the firmament, and commandest it to divide, and to make a division between the waters, that a certain part should depart upward, & part should remain beneath.

⁴²And in the third day thou didst command the waters to be gathered together in the seventh part of the earth: but six parts thou didst dry and preserve, that of them might be serving before thee things sown of God, and tilled.

⁴³For thy word proceeded, and the work forthwith was made.

⁴⁴For suddenly came forth fruit of multitude infinite, and diverse tastes of concupiscence, and flowers of unchangeable colour, and odours of unsearchable smell, & in the third day these things were made.

⁴⁵And in the fourth day thou didst command to be made the brightness of the sun, the light of the moon, the disposition of the stars:

⁴⁶and didst command them that they should serve man, that should be made.

⁴⁷And in the fifth day thou saidst to the seventh part, where the water was gathered together, that it should bring forth beasts, & fowls & fishes: & so was it done,

⁴⁸the dumb water and without life, the things that by God's appointment were commanded, made beasts, that thereby the nations may declare thy marvelous works.

⁴⁹And then thou didst preserve two souls: the name of one thou didst call Henoch, and the name of the second thou didst call Leviathan,

⁵⁰and thou didst separate them from each other. For the seventh part, where the water was gathered together, could not hold them.

⁵¹And thou gavest to Henoch one part, which was dried the third day, to dwell therein, where are a thousand mountains.

⁵²But to Leviathan thou gavest the seventh part being moist, and kepst it, that it might be to devour whom thou wilt, and when thou wilt.

⁵³And in the sixth day thou didst command the earth to create before thee cattle, and beasts, and creeping creatures:

⁵⁴and over these Adam, whom thou madest ruler over all the works, which thou didst make, and out of him are all we brought forth, and the people whom thou hast chosen.

⁵⁵And all these things I have said before thee o Lord, because thou didst create the world for us.

⁵⁶But the residue of the nations born of Adam thou saidst that they were nothing, and that they were like to spittle, and as it were the dropping out of a vessel thou didst liken the aboundance of them.

⁵⁷And now Lord, behold these nations which are reputed for nothing, have begun to rule over us, and to devour us:

⁵⁸but we thy people whom thou didst call thy first only begotten emulator, are delivered into their hands:

⁵⁹and if the world was created for us, why do not we possess inheritance with the world? How long these things?