HarperCollins Study Bible

by Harold W. Attridge

  Ezra’s Prayer of Complaint

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  a Other ancient authorities read They begat for themselves a mother who

  b Other ancient authorities read I have not commanded for you

  c Other ancient authorities read Gomorrah, whose land descends to hell

  d Lat for those

  e Other ancient authorities read Seek

  f Or seal it; or mark them and commit them to the grave

  g Or slaves

  h Lat hands will cover

  i Lat Gehenna

  j Other ancient authorities read I testify that my savior has been commissioned by the Lord

  k Other ancient authorities read to praise and glorify the Lord

  2.1–9 God judges and rejects Israel as a mother rejects her children.

  2.1 The laws are given through prophets; cf. Ezra 9.10–11; Dan 9.10.

  2.2 Zion speaks as Israel’s mother, a biblical idea (cf. esp. Bar 4.5–29; also 2 Esd 10.38–54). She is both widowed and deserted and rejects her children (v. 4).

  2.5 The writer invokes the father, God (or perhaps Ezra), and the mother, Zion, to witness and pronounces doom on the children and ruin on the mother. The imagery of dual rejection is particularly powerful.

  2.7 Scattering, an ultimate curse for disobedience (Lev 26.33). Names…blotted out expresses annihilation—Israel’s very name will be forgotten. For the importance of name and memory as a form of immortality, see Sir 41.11–13.

  2.8 Assyria, possibly a cognomen for Rome, replacing the more common “Babylon” cf. 3.1. The Jews, and the Romans who harbored them, are cursed.

  2.10–14 The reward for the new Israel.

  2.11 In habitations the righteous Christians are to be rewarded and will be given glory; cf. 4.35; 7.98.

  2.12 Perfume. Some thought the tree of life exuded a fragrance or oil rather than gave fruit; cf. Life of Adam and Eve 36.2, 40–42; 2 Enoch 5.5.

  2.13 Eschatological reward is created in advance. For the sense of urgency, cf., e.g., Mt 24.15–34; Mk 13.14–20; Rom 13.11–14; 1 Cor 7.29–31; 1 Thess 4.13–5.11; Rev 1.3; 22.10–12, 20.

  2.14 Call heaven and earth to witness. Cf. Deut 4.26

  2.15–32 The image of the mother is applied to the church. Resurrection is promised throughout this passage (e.g., vv. 16, 23, 29, 31).

  2.18–19 A description of eschatological paradise. Twelve trees. Cf. Rev 22.2. Milk and honey, traditional symbols of fertility; cf. Ex 3.8. Seven…mountains, perhaps the mountains of paradise (1 Enoch 24–25); Rome is known later as the city of seven hills, so this might be an inversion of Rome’s role.

  2.20–23 The call to protect the weak and particularly to care for the dead is standard biblical exhortation; cf. Tob 1.17 and, indeed, the whole book of Tobit. On burial of the executed, see Deut 21.22–23.

  2.24 Rest, eschatological reward; cf. 7.36; Heb 3.18–19; 1 Enoch 11.2.

  2.25–26 Nurse, the church. Your number, “the number given to you” the phrase may derive from Jn 17.12.

  2.31 Sleep, death, but resurrection is implied.

  2.33–41 A first-person address by Ezra.

  2.33 The depiction of Ezra on Mount Horeb (i.e., Mount Sinai) suggests a typological comparison of Ezra with Moses; see ch. 14. Israel is again rejected.

  2.34 Shepherd, Christ.

  2.35 Light will shine upon the righteous. Cf. Isa 60.19–20; Rev 21.23.

  2.36 Savior, clearly Christ.

  2.37 The soul is what is entrusted; see 1 Tim 6.20; 2 Tim 1.12, 14; Shepherd of Hermas, Mandates 3.2.

  2.38 Sealed. See Ezek 9.4; Rev 7.2–8.

  2.39 Glorious garments, the shining robes of the righteous at the end; cf. Rev 3.4–5.

  2.40–41 The number of the righteous is fixed; cf. 4.36.

  2.42–48 Christ confirms the predictions offered in the preceding passage.

  2.42 Mount Zion. Cf. ch. 13; Rev 14.1.

  2.43 For a similar description of the crowning, see Shepherd of Hermas, Similitudes 8.2.1; 8.3.6.

  2.45 Victors receive palms; perhaps a reference to martyrs.

  2 ESDRAS 3

  1In the thirtieth year after the destruction of the city, I was in Babylon—I, Salathiel, who am also called Ezra. I was troubled as I lay on my bed, and my thoughts welled up in my heart, 2because I saw the desolation of Zion and the wealth of those who lived in Babylon. 3My spirit was greatly agitated, and I began to speak anxious words to the Most High, and said, 4“O sovereign Lord, did you not speak at the beginning when you planteda the earth—and that without help—and commanded the dustb 5and it gave you Adam, a lifeless body? Yet he was the creation of your hands, and you breathed into him the breath of life, and he was made alive in your presence. 6And you led him into the garden that your right hand had planted before the earth appeared. 7And you laid upon him one commandment of yours; but he transgressed it, and immediately you appointed death for him and for his descendants. From him there sprang nations and tribes, peoples and clans without number. 8And every nation walked after its own will; they did ungodly things in your sight and rejected your commands, and you did not hinder them. 9But again, in its time you brought the flood upon the inhabitants of the world and destroyed them. 10And the same fate befell all of them: just as death came upon Adam, so the flood upon them. 11But you left one of them, Noah with his household, and all the righteous who have descended from him.

  12“When those who lived on earth began to multiply, they produced children and peoples and many nations, and again they began to be more ungodly than were their ancestors. 13And when they were committing iniquity in your sight, you chose for yourself one of them, whose name was Abraham; 14you loved him, and to him alone you revealed the end of the times, secretly by night. 15You made an everlasting covenant with him, and promised him that you would never forsake his descendants; and you gave him Isaac, and to Isaac you gave Jacob and Esau. 16You set apart Jacob for yourself, but Esau you rejected; and Jacob became a great multitude. 17And when you led his descendants out of Egypt, you brought them to Mount Sinai. 18You bent down the heavens and shookc the earth, and moved the world, and caused the depths to tremble, and troubled the times. 19Your glory passed through the four gates of fire and earthquake and wind and ice, to give the law to the descendants of Jacob, and your commandment to the posterity of Israel.

  20“Yet you did not take away their evil heart from them, so that your law might produce fruit in them. 21For the first Adam, burdened with an evil heart, transgressed and was overcome, as were also all who were descended from him. 22Thus the disease became permanent; the law was in the hearts of the people along with the evil root; but what was good departed, and the evil remained. 23So the times passed and the years were completed, and you raised up for yourself a servant, named David. 24You commanded him to build a city for your name, and there to offer you oblations from what is yours. 25This was done for many years; but the inhabitants of the city transgressed, 26in everything doing just as Adam and all his descendants had done, for they also had the evil heart. 27So you handed over your city to your enemies.

  Babylon Compared with Zion

  28“Then I said in my heart, Are the deeds of those who inhabit Babylon any better? Is that why it has gained dominion over Zion? 29For when I came here I saw ungodly deeds without number, and my soul has seen many sinners during these thirty years.d And my heart failed me, 30because I have seen how you endure those who sin, and have spared those who act wickedly, and have destroyed your people, and protected your enemies, 31and have not shown to anyone how your way may be comprehended.e Are the deeds of Babylon better than those of Zion? 32Or has another nation known you besides Israel? Or what tribes have so believed the covenants as these tribes of Jacob? 33Yet their reward has not appeared and their labor has borne no fruit. For I have traveled widely among the nations and have seen that they abound in wealth, though they are unmindful of your commandments. 34Now therefore weigh in a balance our iniquities and those of the inhabitants o
f the world; and it will be found which way the turn of the scale will incline. 35When have the inhabitants of the earth not sinned in your sight? Or what nation has kept your commandments so well? 36You may indeed find individuals who have kept your commandments, but nations you will not find.”

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  a Other ancient authorities read formed

  b Syr Ethiop: Lat people or world

  c Syr Ethiop Arab 1 Georg: Lat set fast

  d Ethiop Arab 1 Arm: Lat Syr in this thirtieth year

  e Syr; compare Ethiop: Lat how this way should be forsaken

  3.1–14.48 Chs. 3–14 form a separate work, a Jewish apocalypse containing seven visions; it is often called 4 Ezra (see Introduction).

  3.1–5.15 First vision.

  3.1–3 The introduction to the first vision.

  3.1 Cf. Ezek 1.1. Salathiel, used only here; cf. Dan 4.5. Of course, Ezra is only a pseudonym.

  3.3 The onset of inspiration. Most High, the usual title for God in this book.

  3.4–36 Ezra’s address falls into two parts. Vv. 4–27 are an indictment of God set as a historical review; vv. 28–36 set forth the specific charges.

  3.4 Speak, without help. God creates alone (perhaps a polemical assertion) and by speech; cf. Ps 33.6, 9.

  3.5 For God’s hands, see also 8.7, 44; 2 Enoch A 44.1.

  3.6 Eden was created before the world, a common exegesis of Gen 2.8.

  3.8 God did not prevent human sin; see also v. 20.

  3.10 Adam’s punishment is again evoked; cf. vv. 21, 26.

  3.14 The night revelation is that of Gen 15.17; cf. Apocalypse of Abraham. It concerned secrets about the end of times also in many rabbinic sources. Cf. 14.5–6.

  3.15 Cf. Gen 15.18–21; Josh 24.3–4.

  3.16 See Mal 1.2–3. Esau may signify Rome.

  3.17 Moses is not mentioned.

  3.18 See Ex 19.18. Times, better “universe.”

  3.19 Gates, the storehouses of the weather; cf. Ps 78.23; 1 Enoch 36.1; 76.1–14.

  3.20–21 Evil heart, the inclination to sin; cf. 4.30; Sir 37.3; the Dead Sea Scrolls Rule of the Community (1QS) 3.13–4.26. Humans were created with it, transgressed as a result, and became mortal. This accords generally with rabbinic ideas. Fruit, reward.

  3.22 Evil root. Cf. 8.53; see Ps 155.13–14 in the Dead Sea Scrolls Psalms Scroll (11QPsa) 24. The view expressed in this verse differs from that in Rom 7 and is modified later in the book; see vv. 32–36; 7.116–31.

  3.23–24 In 10.46 Solomon builds the city.

  3.26 Israel’s sin is parallel to Adam’s; both lead to expulsion; cf. Genesis Rabbah 19.9. Thus Israel’s exile results from the way God created the world.

  3.28 Then I said in my heart. A reflective tone enters the address. The concern resembles that in Isa 10.5–8; Jer 25.8–14.

  3.29 Here, Babylon.

  3.30 The problem arises from comparing Israel’s fate and that of the nations.

  3.31 Ezra wishes to understand God’s way of conducting the world. For way of God, see 4.2, 11; Rom 11.33; Dead Sea Scrolls Thanksgiving Hymns (1QH) 7.31–32. God’s action is unknowable; cf. Job 9.11–12; Isa 40.13.

  3.32 Israel, though not perfect, is better than the others.

  3.34 For the scale weighing human deeds, see 1 Enoch 41.1; 61.8; 2 Enoch 44.5.

  3.35–36 These verses stress the injustice of God’s punishment of Israel.

  2 ESDRAS 4

  Limitations of the Human Mind

  1Then the angel that had been sent to me, whose name was Uriel, answered 2and said to me, “Your understanding has utterly failed regarding this world, and do you think you can comprehend the way of the Most High?” 3Then I said, “Yes, my lord.” And he replied to me, “I have been sent to show you three ways, and to put before you three problems. 4If you can solve one of them for me, then I will show you the way you desire to see, and will teach you why the heart is evil.”

  5I said, “Speak, my lord.”

  And he said to me, “Go, weigh for me the weight of fire, or measure for me a blasta of wind, or call back for me the day that is past.”

  6I answered and said, “Who of those that have been born can do that, that you should ask me about such things?”

  7And he said to me, “If I had asked you, ‘How many dwellings are in the heart of the sea, or how many streams are at the source of the deep, or how many streams are above the firmament, or which are the exits of Hades, or which are the entrancesb of paradise?’ 8perhaps you would have said to me, ‘I never went down into the deep, nor as yet into Hades, neither did I ever ascend into heaven.’ 9But now I have asked you only about fire and wind and the day—things that you have experienced and from which you cannot be separated, and you have given me no answer about them.” 10He said to me, “You cannot understand the things with which you have grown up; 11how then can your mind comprehend the way of the Most High? And how can one who is already worn outc by the corrupt world understand incorruption?”d When I heard this, I fell on my facee 12and said to him, “It would have been better for us not to be here than to come here and live in ungodliness, and to suffer and not understand why.”

  Parable of the Forest and the Sea

  13He answered me and said, “I went into a forest of trees of the plain, and they made a plan 14and said, ‘Come, let us go and make war against the sea, so that it may recede before us and so that we may make for ourselves more forests.’ 15In like manner the waves of the sea also made a plan and said, ‘Come, let us go up and subdue the forest of the plain so that there also we may gain more territory for ourselves.’ 16But the plan of the forest was in vain, for the fire came and consumed it; 17likewise also the plan of the waves of the sea was in vain,f for the sand stood firm and blocked it. 18If now you were a judge between them, which would you undertake to justify, and which to condemn?”

  19I answered and said, “Each made a foolish plan, for the land has been assigned to the forest, and the locale of the sea a place to carry its waves.”

  20He answered me and said, “You have judged rightly, but why have you not judged so in your own case? 21For as the land has been assigned to the forest and the sea to its waves, so also those who inhabit the earth can understand only what is on the earth, and he who isg above the heavens can understand what is above the height of the heavens.”

  The New Age Will Make All Things Clear

  22Then I answered and said, “I implore you, my lord, whyh have I been endowed with the power of understanding? 23For I did not wish to inquire about the ways above, but about those things that we daily experience: why Israel has been given over to the Gentiles in disgrace; why the people whom you loved has been given over to godless tribes, and the law of our ancestors has been brought to destruction and the written covenants no longer exist. 24We pass from the world like locusts, and our life is like a mist,i and we are not worthy to obtain mercy. 25But what will he do for hisj name that is invoked over us? It is about these things that I have asked.”

  26He answered me and said, “If you are alive, you will see, and if you live long,k you will often marvel, because the age is hurrying swiftly to its end. 27It will not be able to bring the things that have been promised to the righteous in their appointed times, because this age is full of sadness and infirmities. 28For the evil about whichl you ask me has been sown, but the harvest of it has not yet come. 29If therefore that which has been sown is not reaped, and if the place where the evil has been sown does not pass away, the field where the good has been sown will not come. 30For a grain of evil seed was sown in Adam’s heart from the beginning, and how much ungodliness it has produced until now—and will produce until the time of threshing comes! 31Consider now for yourself how much fruit of ungodliness a grain of evil seed has produced. 32When heads of grain without number are sown, how great a threshing floor they will fill!”

  When Will the New Age Come?

  33Then I answered and said, “How long?m When will these things be? Why are our
years few and evil?” 34He answered me and said, “Do not be in a greater hurry than the Most High. You, indeed, are in a hurry for yourself,n but the Highest is in a hurry on behalf of many. 35Did not the souls of the righteous in their chambers ask about these matters, saying, ‘How long are we to remain here?o And when will the harvest of our reward come?’ 36And the archangel Jeremiel answered and said, ‘When the number of those like yourselves is completed;p for he has weighed the age in the balance, 37and measured the times by measure, and numbered the times by number; and he will not move or arouse them until that measure is fulfilled.’”

  38Then I answered and said, “But, O sovereign Lord, all of us also are full of ungodliness. 39It is perhaps on account of us that the time of threshing is delayed for the righteous—on account of the sins of those who inhabit the earth.”

  40He answered me and said, “Go and ask a pregnant woman whether, when her nine months have been completed, her womb can keep the fetus within her any longer.”

  41And I said, “No, lord, it cannot.”

  He said to me, “In Hades the chambers of the souls are like the womb. 42For just as a woman who is in labor makes haste to escape the pangs of birth, so also do these places hasten to give back those things that were committed to them from the beginning. 43Then the things that you desire to see will be disclosed to you.”

  How Much Time Remains?

  44I answered and said, “If I have found favor in your sight, and if it is possible, and if I am worthy, 45show me this also: whether more time is to come than has passed, or whether for us the greater part has gone by. 46For I know what has gone by, but I do not know what is to come.”

  47And he said to me, “Stand at my right side, and I will show you the interpretation of a parable.”