4 Esdras 7

¹Jesus shall be revealed with them that are with him, & they shall be merry that are left in the four hundred years.

²and he said to me: Arise Esdras, and hear the words which I am come to speak to thee.

³And I said: Speak my God. And he said to me: The sea is set in a large place, that it might be deep and wide:

⁴but the entrance to it shall be set in a strait place, that it might be like to rivers.

⁵For who witting will enter into the sea, and see it, or rule over it: if he pass not the strait, how shall he come into the breadth?

⁶Also another thing: A city is built, and set in a plain place, and it is full of all goods.

⁷And it came to pass when I had ended to speak these words, the Angel was sent to me, which had been sent to me the first nights,

⁸and there is one only path set between them, that is, between the fire and the water, so that the path cannot contain, but only a man's step.

⁹And if the city shall be given a man for inheritance, if he never pass through the peril set before it, how shall he receive his inheritance?

¹⁰And I said: So Lord. And he said to me, So it is: Israel also a part.

¹¹For I made the world for them: and when Adam transgressed my constitution, that was judged which was done.

¹²And the entrances of this world were made strait, and sorrowful, & painful, and few and evil, and full of dangers, and stuffed very much with labour.

¹³For the entrances of the greater world are large and secure, and making fruit of immortality.

¹⁴If then they that live entering in enter into these strait and vain things: they cannot receive the things that are laid up.

¹⁵Now therefore why art thou troubled, whereas thou art corruptible? And why art thou moved, whereas thou art mortal?

¹⁶And why hast thou not taken in thy heart that which is to come, but that which is present?

¹⁷I answered, and said: Lord Dominator: behold thou hast disposed by thy law that the just shall inherit these things, and the impious shall perish. .

¹⁸But the just shall suffer the straits, hoping for the wide places: for they that have done impiously, have both suffered the straits, and shall not see the wide places.

¹⁹And he said to me: There is no judge above God, nor that understandeth above the Highest.

²⁰For many present do perish because the law of God which was set before, is neglected.

²¹For God commanding commanded them that came, when they came, what doing they should live, and what observing they should not be punished.

²²But they were not persuaded, & gainsaid him, and made to themselves a cogitation of vanity,

²³and proposed to themselves deceits of sins, and they said to the Highest that he was not, and they knew not his ways,

²⁴and despised his law, and denied his covenances, and had not fidelity in his ordinances, & did not accomplish his works.

²⁵For this cause Esdras, the empty to the empty, & the full to the full.

²⁶Behold the time shall come, & it shall be when the signs shall come which I have foretold thee, and the bride shall appear, and appearing she shall be shewed that now is hid with the earth:

²⁷and every one that is delivered from the foresaid evils, he shall see my marvelous things.

²⁸For my son JESUS shall be revealed with them that are with him, & they shall be merry that are left in the four hundred years.

²⁹And it shall be after these years, and my son CHRIST shall die: and all men that have breadth,

³⁰and the world shall be turned into the old silence seven days, as in the former judgements, so that none shall be left.

³¹And it shall be after seven days and the world shall be raised up that yet waketh not, and shall die corrupted:

³²and the earth shall render the things that sleep in it, and the dust them that dwell in it with silence, and the cellars shall render the souls that are commended to them.

³³And the Highest shall be revealed upon the seat of judgement, and miseries shall pass, and long sufferance shall be gathered together.

³⁴And judgement only shall remain, truth shall stand, and faith shall wax strong,

³⁵and the work shall follow, and the reward shall be shewed, and justice shall awake, and injustice shall not have dominion.

³⁶And I said: First Abraham prayed for the Sodomites, and Moyses for the fathers that sinned in the desert. . Exod. 32.

³⁷And they that were after him for Israel in the

³⁸And David for the destruction, and of Salomon for them that came unto the sanctification.

³⁹And Elias for them that received rain, and for the dead that he might live, 3. . & 18.

⁴⁰and Ezechias for the people in the days of Sennacherib, and many for many.

⁴¹If therefore now when corruptible did increase, and injustice was multiplied, and the just prayed for the impious: why now also shall it not be so?

⁴²And he answered me and said: This present world is not the end, much glory remaineth in it: for this cause they prayed for the impotent.

⁴³For the day of judgement shall be the end of this time, and the beginning of the immortality to come, wherein corruption is past:

⁴⁴intemperance is dissolved, incredulity is cut off: and justice hath increased, truth is sprung.

⁴⁵For then no man can save him that hath perished, nor drown him that hath overcome. And I answered,

⁴⁶and said: This is my word the first and the last, that it had been better not to give the earth to Adam, or when he had now given it, to restrain him that he should not sin.

⁴⁷For what doth it profit men presently to live in sorrow, and being dead to hope for punishment?

⁴⁸O what hast thou done Adam? For if thou didst sin, it was not made thy fall only, but ours also which came of thee.

⁴⁹For what doth it profit us if immortal time be promised to us: but we have done mortal works?

⁵⁰And that everlasting hope is foretold us: but we most wicked are become vain?

⁵¹And that habitations of health and security are reserved for us, but we have converst naughtily?

⁵²And that the glory of the Highest is reserved to protect them that have slowly converst: but we have walked in most wicked ways?

⁵³And that paradise shall be shewed, whose fruit continueth incorrupted, wherein is security and remedy:

⁵⁴but we shall not enter in: for we have converst in unlawful places?

⁵⁵And their faces which have had abstinence, shall shine above the stars: but our faces black above darkness.

⁵⁶For we did not think living when we did iniquity, that we shall begin after death to suffer.

⁵⁷And he answered, & said: This is the cogitation of the battle which man shall fight, who is born upon the earth,

⁵⁸that if he shall be overcome, he suffer that which thou hast said: but if he overcome he shall receive that which I say:

⁵⁹for this is the life which Moyses spake of when he lived, to the people, saying: Choose unto thee life, that thou mayst live.

⁶⁰But they believed him not, no nor the Prophets after him, no nor me which have spoken to them.

⁶¹Because there should not be sorrow unto their perdition, as there shall be joy upon them, to whom salvation is persuaded.

⁶²And I answered, and said: I know Lord, that the Highest is called merciful in that, he hath mercy on them which are not yet come into the world,

⁶³and that he hath mercy on them which converse in his law:

⁶⁴& he is long suffering, because he sheweth long sufferance to them that have sinned, as it were with their own works:

⁶⁵and he is bountiful, because he will give according to exigents:

⁶⁶and of great mercy, because he multiplieth more mercies to them that are present, and that are past, and that are to come.

⁶⁷For if he shall not multiply his mercies, the world shall not be made alive with them that did inherit it.

⁶⁸And he giveth: for if he shall not give of his bounty, that they may be relieved which have done iniquity, the tenth thousand part of men cannot be quickened from their iniquities.

⁶⁹And the judge if he shall not forgive them that are cured with his word, and wipe away a multitude of contentions: there should not perhaps be left in an innumerable multitude, but very few.