e Meaning of Lat uncertain
f Lat Syr Arab 2 literally the faces of many people
g Ethiop Compare Arab 2: Lat easier
h Syr: Lat this
i Syr Arab 1: Lat lacks and…not survive
j Syr and most Lat Mss lack from the sea
k Syr: Lat effort and the law
l Other Lat Mss ten; Syr Ethiop Arab 1 Arm nine and a half
m That is Another Land
n Syr: Lat stops
o Syr: Lat lacks shall be saved
p Syr: Ethiop except when his time and his day have come. Lat lacks his
q Lat did
13.1–58 Sixth vision.
13.1–13a This vision is much simpler than the fifth. The closeness of the end is not mentioned.
13.1 Seven days. See 12.51. This is explicitly a dream; Ezra is prostrate (cf. v. 57).
13.2 Wind, better “great wind.” Cf. Dan 7.2.
13.3 Cf. Dan 7.13; the figure of a man is a redeemer.
13.4 Melting of enemies is a divine characteristic; cf. Ps 97.5; Mic 1.4. The superhuman nature of the figure is strongly suggested.
13.5 The eschatological attack (see Rev 16.12–15), an idea originating in Deut 28.49; Joel 2.1–10.
13.6 Carved out…a great mountain. Cf. Dan 2.34, 45.
13.7 The dreamer intervenes here.
13.9 Nor…any weapon of war. Cf. Psalms of Solomon 17.33–34. Fire (v. 10) is God’s chief weapon; cf. Ps 97.3.
13.10 This perhaps hints at God’s effective word; see Ps 2.9; Isa 11.4; Psalms of Solomon 17.35.
13.11 Again the dreamer intervenes.
13.13a The ingathering of converted Gentiles. See Isa 66.20; Rom 11.25; 15.16.
13.13b–20a The response functions like 12.3b–9.
13.14 Ezra asserts his own worthiness; cf. 12.7–9. Wonders, the eschatological revelation in the book.
13.16 Woe pronouncement: survivors live on after the woes; see v. 19.
13.18 The seeing of reward or punishment is part of recompense; see 7.66, 83, 93.
13.20 Yet it is better…in the last days, the reversal of the idea that death is better; cf. 4.12. Ezra, now a prophet, no longer despairs.
13.20b–55 The interpretation of the dream is unclear and repetitive. The author may have composed the interpretation for a previously existing vision he took over.
13.21 God interprets Ezra’s dream and prayer without angelic mediation.
13.24 Ezra’s view in v. 20 is confirmed.
13.26 Who will himself, better “through whom he will.” The Messiah is precreated. Those who are left, after the messianic woes.
13.27–28 A restatement of vv. 10–11, but the interpretation comes only in vv. 36–38.
13.29 The days are coming. A predictive passage starts, relating to the woes.
13.30 Cf. 2 Apocalypse of Baruch 25.3; 70.2. Bewilderment of mind leads to internecine strife; see 5.9; 6.24; 9.3–4.
13.32 Son, better either “servant” or “son” (no capital letter). The man (v. 3) is the servant.
13.33 Voice. See v. 4.
13.34 The evil nations’ final assault on Zion; it will be repulsed by the Messiah.
13.35 See vv. 6–7; cf. Ps 2.6; Isa 31.4.
13.36 Cf. Dan 2.34, 45. The mountain, Zion. Without hands explicitly contradicts v. 6.
13.37 See vv. 10–11. The man’s breath is both fire and judgment.
13.38 Reproach, the Messiah’s judgmental word.
13.40 Nine and a half tribes (text note f) is the preferred reading here, and not nine or ten. This number is also mentioned in 2 Apocalypse of Baruch 77.17, 19; 78.1.
13.41 Cf. Josephus, Antiquities 11.133.
13.44 Based on the miracle of the Red Sea, Ex 14.21–31. Cf. also the Israelites’ crossing of the Jordan in Josh 3.14–17.
13.45 Arzareth, enigmatic; perhaps cf. Deut 29.28 for Hebrew ’erets ’acheret, “another land.”
13.46 The end is close.
13.47 The Most High…to cross over. Eschatological redemption is associated with the exodus.
13.48 See 9.8; 12.34, where similar events are foretold.
13.49 The Messiah will protect the survivors.
13.50 Wonders, the Messiah’s action; cf. 4.26; 7.27. See also “signs and wonders” in connection with the exodus, Ex 7.3, 9.
13.51 A repetitive question. Cf. vv. 25–26.
13.52 See v. 3. Depths of the sea. See 4.7. Those who are with him, those taken alive to heaven, like Elijah and Enoch.
13.54 Ezra’s wisdom is praised; Torah (law) and wisdom are often connected; see 8.12.
13.55 Wisdom, the tradition of eschatological teaching; see 14.40, 47.
13.56–58 Conclusion and injunctions. This stands in deliberate contrast to the start of the first vision.
13.56 Reward is precreated; see 8.52–53, 59.
13.57 Then I got up. In 3.1 Ezra lies on his bed in Babylon.
13.58 Because he governs…in their seasons. God’s governance of the world had been questioned in ch. 3.
2 ESDRAS 14
The Lord Commissions Ezra
1On the third day, while I was sitting under an oak, suddenly a voice came out of a bush opposite me and said, “Ezra, Ezra!” 2And I answered, “Here I am, Lord,” and I rose to my feet. 3Then he said to me, “I revealed myself in a bush and spoke to Moses when my people were in bondage in Egypt; 4and I sent him and leda my people out of Egypt; and I led him up on Mount Sinai, where I kept him with me many days. 5I told him many wondrous things, and showed him the secrets of the times and declared to himb the end of the times. Then I commanded him, saying, 6‘These words you shall publish openly, and these you shall keep secret.’ 7And now I say to you: 8Lay up in your heart the signs that I have shown you, the dreams that you have seen, and the interpretations that you have heard; 9for you shall be taken up from among humankind, and henceforth you shall live with my Son and with those who are like you, until the times are ended. 10The age has lost its youth, and the times begin to grow old. 11For the age is divided into twelve parts, and ninec of its parts have already passed, 12as well as half of the tenth part; so two of its parts remain, besides half of the tenth part.d 13Now therefore, set your house in order, and reprove your people; comfort the lowly among them, and instruct those that are wise.e And now renounce the life that is corruptible, 14and put away from you mortal thoughts; cast away from you the burdens of humankind, and divest yourself now of your weak nature; 15lay to one side the thoughts that are most grievous to you, and hurry to escape from these times. 16For evils worse than those that you have now seen happen shall take place hereafter. 17For the weaker the world becomes through old age, the more shall evils be increased upon its inhabitants. 18Truth shall go farther away, and falsehood shall come near. For the eaglef that you saw in the vision is already hurrying to come.”
Ezra’s Concern to Restore the Scriptures
19Then I answered and said, “Let me speakg in your presence, Lord. 20For I will go, as you have commanded me, and I will reprove the people who are now living; but who will warn those who will be born hereafter? For the world lies in darkness, and its inhabitants are without light. 21For your law has been burned, and so no one knows the things which have been done or will be done by you. 22If then I have found favor with you, send the holy spirit into me, and I will write everything that has happened in the world from the beginning, the things that were written in your law, so that people may be able to find the path, and that those who want to live in the last days may do so.”
23He answered me and said, “Go and gather the people, and tell them not to seek you for forty days. 24But prepare for yourself many writing tablets, and take with you Sarea, Dabria, Selemia, Ethanus, and Asiel—these five, who are trained to write rapidly; 25and you shall come here, and I will light in your heart the lamp of understanding, which shall not be put out until what you are about to write is finished. 26And when you have finished, some things you shall make public, and some you shall deliver in secret to the wise; tomorrow
at this hour you shall begin to write.”
Ezra’s Last Words to the People
27Then I went as he commanded me, and I gathered all the people together, and said, 28“Hear these words, O Israel. 29At first our ancestors lived as aliens in Egypt, and they were liberated from there 30and received the law of life, which they did not keep, which you also have transgressed after them. 31Then land was given to you for a possession in the land of Zion; but you and your ancestors committed iniquity and did not keep the ways that the Most High commanded you. 32And since he is a righteous judge, in due time he took from you what he had given. 33And now you are here, and your peopleh are farther in the interior.i 34If you, then, will rule over your minds and discipline your hearts, you shall be kept alive, and after death you shall obtain mercy. 35For after death the judgment will come, when we shall live again; and then the names of the righteous shall become manifest, and the deeds of the ungodly shall be disclosed. 36But let no one come to me now, and let no one seek me for forty days.”
The Restoration of the Scriptures
37So I took the five men, as he commanded me, and we proceeded to the field, and remained there. 38And on the next day a voice called me, saying, “Ezra, open your mouth and drink what I give you to drink.” 39So I opened my mouth, and a full cup was offered to me; it was full of something like water, but its color was like fire. 40I took it and drank; and when I had drunk it, my heart poured forth understanding, and wisdom increased in my breast, for my spirit retained its memory, 41and my mouth was opened and was no longer closed. 42Moreover, the Most High gave understanding to the five men, and by turns they wrote what was dictated, using characters that they did not know.j They sat forty days; they wrote during the daytime, and ate their bread at night. 43But as for me, I spoke in the daytime and was not silent at night. 44So during the forty days, ninety-fourk books were written. 45And when the forty days were ended, the Most High spoke to me, saying, “Make public the twenty-fourl books that you wrote first, and let the worthy and the unworthy read them; 46but keep the seventy that were written last, in order to give them to the wise among your people. 47For in them is the spring of understanding, the fountain of wisdom, and the river of knowledge.” 48And I did so.m
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a Syr Arab 1 Arab 2 he led
b Syr Ethiop Arab Arm: Lat lacks declared to him
c Cn: Lat Ethiop ten
d Syr lacks verses 11, 12: Ethiop For the world is divided into ten parts, and has come to the tenth, and half of the tenth remains. Now…
e Lat lacks and…wise
f Syr Ethiop Arab Arm: Meaning of Lat uncertain
g Most Lat Mss lack Let me speak
h Lat brothers
i Syr Ethiop Arm: Lat are among you
j Syr Compare Ethiop Arab 2 Arm: Meaning of Lat uncertain
k Syr Ethiop Arab 1 Arm: Meaning of Lat uncertain
l Syr Arab 1: Lat lacks twenty-four
m Syr adds in the seventh year of the sixth week, five thousand years and three months and twelve days after creation. At that time Ezra was caught up, and taken to the place of those who are like him, after he had written all these things. And he was called the scribe of the knowledge of the Most High for ever and ever. Ethiop Arab 1 Arm have a similar ending
14.1–48 The seventh vision, the revelation of scripture to Ezra, concludes 4 Ezra. God speaks directly in this chapter.
14.1–2 Narrative introduction and call.
14.1 Third day. The preceding six visions total forty days. Oak. See Gen 18.1; Judg 4.5; 2 Apocalypse of Baruch 6.1; 77.18. Bush. See Ex 3.2–4.17. Ezra resembles Moses here.
14.2 See 6.13–15; Ex 3.5.
14.3–18 Address to Ezra before his assumption.
14.3–4 Cf. Ex 3.2–12.
14.4 See Ex 24.15–18; 34.1–35.
14.5 Cf. 3.14; 12.36–37. Moses also received a secret revelation; cf. 2 Apocalypse of Baruch 59.4.
14.6 A double revelation; this command is apocryphal, cf. 9.29–31; 12.37. Also cf. 14.45.
14.7 12.9, 36–37 link Ezra’s revelation to Moses’ and Abraham’s.
14.8 Ezra has only secret revelation in the first six visions; cf. 14.6.
14.9 Son, better “servant.” Ezra’s assumption is prophesied; cf. 6.26; 13.52.
14.10 The waning of this world/age; see v. 17; also 4.45–50; 5.55.
14.11 Many such divisions of history exist; the actual basis of the reckoning here is obscure. See (note on) 13.40, where nine and a half tribes are exiled.
14.13 Set your house…that are wise. These commands, using wisdom terms, are executed in vv. 27–36, although the wise are not instructed. That which is corruptible dies.
14.14 Ezra is not to be assumed in the body.
14.15 Ezra will escape the toilsomeness of the age.
14.17 See vv. 10–11. The senescence of the earth brings evils.
14.18 The author here refers to his own times, not those of Ezra.
14.19–22 Ezra already has esoteric knowledge. Now he asks for exoteric revelation in order to become like Moses.
14.20 Who will warn…hereafter? Cf. 5.41. On light, see Pss 36.10; 119.105; Prov 6.23.
14.21 The Torah (law) was lost; cf. 4.23. For its contents here, cf. Jubilees 1.29.
14.22 This request is unparalleled in the book. Holy spirit. See Ps 51.13; Isa 63.10; Wis 1.5; Jubilees 1.21. Live, i.e., have eternal life.
14.23–26 Injunctions.
14.23 Forty days, the length of time Moses was on the mountain (Ex 24.19). The first six visions also took a total of forty days.
14.24 Ethanus, alternately “Elkana.” Five men. See 2 Apocalypse of Baruch 5.5.
14.25 Is finished, better “you finish.” The nature of the inspiration is described. Ezra will remember the revelation until he finishes writing.
14.26 Some…public, and some…to the wise. The revelation is both exoteric and esoteric, like Moses’(v. 6).
14.27–36 Ezra’s speech to the people stating the reasons for exile and the hope of eternal life. Zion’s fate is not mentioned.
14.27 See v. 23. Ezra’s admonition is prophetic.
14.28 Cf. 9.30.
14.30 Law of life. See Sir 17.11; 45.5.
14.32 General conclusion of the historical recital.
14.33 See 13.40–41.
14.35 Resurrection is intended and judgment is disclosed.
14.37–48 Revelation of the exoteric and esoteric books to Ezra, who has achieved prophetic status, and his translation.
14.37 Five men. See v. 24.
14.38 Cf. v. 25. This is a waking experience.
14.39 He passes from audition to vision. The cup contains the holy spirit.
14.40 Drinking denotes inspiration. Poured forth understanding. Cf. Odes of Solomon 36.7.
14.42 The scribes are also inspired, which guarantees the accuracy of their writing. Similarly, Philo of Alexandria, claims that the translators of the Septuagint were inspired (Life of Moses 2.25–44).
14.45–46 Cf. v. 26. Twenty-four is a traditional number of books in the Hebrew Bible. Seventy, perhaps the apocalyptic books; they are to be transmitted secretly.
14.47 Cf. Prov 18.4; 1 Enoch 48.1. The esoteric books contain saving knowledge.
14.49 Conclusion. The additional material, found in text note f, should be regarded as original; cf. vv. 9, 14–15.
2 ESDRAS 15a
Vengeance on the Wicked
1Speak in the ears of my people the words of the prophecy that I will put in your mouth, says the Lord, 2and cause them to be written on paper; for they are trustworthy and true. 3Do not fear the plots against you, and do not be troubled by the unbelief of those who oppose you. 4For all unbelievers shall die in their unbelief.b
5Beware, says the Lord, I am bringing evils upon the world, the sword and famine, death and destruction, 6because iniquity has spread throughout every land, and their harmful doings have reached their limit. 7Therefore, says the Lord, 8I will be silent no longe
r concerning their ungodly acts that they impiously commit, neither will I tolerate their wicked practices. Innocent and righteous blood cries out to me, and the souls of the righteous cry out continually. 9I will surely avenge them, says the Lord, and will receive to myself all the innocent blood from among them. 10See, my people are being led like a flock to the slaughter; I will not allow them to live any longer in the land of Egypt, 11but I will bring them out with a mighty hand and with an uplifted arm, and will strike Egypt with plagues, as before, and will destroy all its land.
12Let Egypt mourn, and its foundations, because of the plague of chastisement and castigation that the Lord will bring upon it. 13Let the farmers that till the ground mourn, because their seed shall fail to growc and their trees shall be ruined by blight and hail and by a terrible tempest. 14Alas for the world and for those who live in it! 15For the sword and misery draw near them, and nation shall rise up to fight against nation, with swords in their hands. 16For there shall be unrest among people; growing strong against one another, they shall in their might have no respect for their king or the chief of their leaders. 17For a person will desire to go into a city, and shall not be able to do so. 18Because of their pride the cities shall be in confusion, the houses shall be destroyed, and people shall be afraid. 19People shall have no pity for their neighbors, but shall make an assault upond their houses with the sword, and plunder their goods, because of hunger for bread and because of great tribulation.
20See how I am calling together all the kings of the earth to turn to me, says God, from the rising sun and from the south, from the east and from Lebanon; to turn and repay what they have given them. 21Just as they have done to my elect until this day, so I will do, and will repay into their bosom. Thus says the Lord God: 22My right hand will not spare the sinners, and my sword will not cease from those who shed innocent blood on earth. 23And a fire went forth from his wrath, and consumed the foundations of the earth and the sinners, like burnt straw. 24Alas for those who sin and do not observe my commandments, says the Lord;e 25I will not spare them. Depart, you faithless children! Do not pollute my sanctuary. 26For Godf knows all who sin against him; therefore he will hand them over to death and slaughter. 27Already calamities have come upon the whole earth, and you shall remain in them; Godg will not deliver you, because you have sinned against him.
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