Lost Books of the Bible (158 page)

41: Then said I, No, Lord, she cannot. And he said to me, In the grave the chambers of souls are like the womb of a woman:

42: Like a woman that labors makes haste to escape the necessity of the travail: even so do these places haste to deliver those things that are committed to them.

43: From the beginning, look what you desire to see, it will be showed you.

44: Then I answered and said, If I have found favor in your sight, and if it is possible, and if I am worthy,

45: Show me then whether there is more to come than is past, or more past than is to come.

46: What is past I know, but what is for to come I know not.

47: And he said to me, Stand up upon the right side, and I will explain the illustration to you.

48: So I stood, and saw, and, behold, a hot burning oven passed by before me; and it when the flame was gone by I looked, and, behold, the smoke remained still.

49: After this there passed by before me a watery cloud, and sent down much rain with a storm; and when the stormy rain was past, the drops remained still.

50: Then he said to me, Think about this; as the rain is more than the drops, and as the fire is greater than the smoke; but the drops and the smoke remain behind;  so the quantity which is past is greater.

51: Then I prayed, and said, I will live until that time? Or what will happen in those days?

52: He answered me, and said, As for the tokens whereof you ask me, I may tell you of them in pieces: but as touching your life, I am not sent to show you; for I do not know it.

4 Ezra Chapter 5

1: However, to share a small part with you, the days will come, that they which dwell upon earth will be taken in a great number, and the way of truth will be hidden, and the land will be barren of faith.

2: But iniquity will be increased above that which now you see, or that you have heard long ago.

3: And the land, that you see now supporting plants, will you see wasted suddenly.

4: But if the most High grants you to live, you will see after the third trumpet that the sun will suddenly shine again in the night, and the moon three time in the day:

5: And blood will drop out of wood, and the stone will  have a voice, and the people will be troubled:

6: He will rule, whom they do not look for that dwell upon the earth, and the fowls will take their flight away together:

7: And the Sodomitish sea will cast out fish and make a noise at night, which many have not known: but they will all hear the voice of it.

8: There will be a confusion in many places, and the fire will be sent out again often, and the wild beasts will change their places, and women having their periods will give birth to monsters:

9: And salt waters will be found in the sweet, and all friends will destroy one another; then common sense will hide itself, and understanding withdraw itself into his secret rooms,

10: And will be sought of many, and yet not be found: then will unrighteousness and sexual passion be multiplied upon earth.

11: One land also will ask another, and say, Is righteousness that makes a man righteous gone through you? And it will say, No.

12: At the same time men will hope, but nothing will be obtain: they will labor, but their ways will not prosper.

13: I have permission to show you such things; and if you will pray again, and weep as now, and fast even days, you will hear yet greater things.

14: Then I awoke, and an extreme fearfulness went through all my body, and my mind was troubled, so that it fainted.

15: So the angel that was come to talk with me held me, comforted me, and set me up upon my feet.

16: And in the second night Salathiel the captain of the people came to me, saying, Where have you been? and why do you look so worried?

17: Do you not know that Israel is committed to you in the land of their captivity?

18: Get up then, and eat bread, and do not forsake us, as the shepherd that leaves his flock in the hands of cruel wolves.

19: Then said I to him, Go your way from me, and come not near me. And he heard what I said, and went from me.

20: And so I fasted seven days, mourning and weeping, as Uriel the angel commanded me.

21: And after seven days so it was, that the thoughts of my heart were very grievous to me again,

22: And my soul recovered the spirit of understanding, and I began to talk with the most High again,

23: And said, O Lord that upholds rule, of every wood of the earth, and of all the trees thereof, you have chosen your one and only vine:

24: And of all lands of the whole world you have chosen your one pit; and of all the flowers thereof one lily:

25: And of all the depths of the sea you have filled you one river: and of all built cities you have hallowed Sion to yourself:

26: And of all the fowls that are created you have named you one dove: and of all the cattle that are made you have provided you one sheep:

27: And among all the multitudes of people you have gotten you one people: and to this people, whom you loved, you gave a law that is approved of all.

28: And now, O Lord, why have you given this one people over to many? On this one root have you prepared others so why have you scattered your only one people among many?

29: And they who preached your promises for money, and believed not your covenants, have trodden them down.

30: If you hated your people this much,  should you not punish them with your own hands?

31: Now when I had spoken these words, the angel that came to me the night before was sent to me,

32: And said to me, Hear me, and I will instruct you; hearken to the thing that I say, and I will tell you more.

33: And I said, Speak on, my Lord. Then said he to me, You are very troubled in mind for Israel’s sake. Do you love that people better than he that made them?

34: And I said, No, Lord: but of very grief have I spoken: for my restraints pain me every hour, while I labor to comprehend the way of the most High, and to seek out part of his judgment.

35: And he said to me, You cannot. And I said, Why, Lord? Why was I born then? Why was my mother’s womb not my grave, that I might not have seen the travail of Jacob, and the wearisome toil of the stock of Israel?

36: And he said to me, Number me the things that are not yet come, gather me together the dross that are scattered abroad, make me the flowers green again that are withered,

37: Open me the places that are closed, and bring out the winds to me that are shut up in them, show me the image of a voice: and then I will declare to you the thing that you labor to know.

38: And I said, O Lord that upholds rule, who may know these things, but he that has not his dwelling with men?

39: I am unwise: how may I then speak of these things whereof you ask me?

40: Then he said to me, Like you cannot do these things that I have spoken of, neither can you find out my judgment, or in the end the love that I have promised to my people.

41: And I said, Behold, O Lord, yet are you near to them that be reserved till the end: and what will they do that have been before me, or we that be now, or they that will come after us?

42: And he said to me, I will liken my judgment to a ring: like as there is no slackness (slowness) of the last, even so there is no swiftness of the first.

43: So I answered and said, Could you not make those that have been made, and be now, and that are to come, at once; that you might show your judgment sooner?

44: Then he answered me, and said, The creature may not rise above the maker; neither may the world hold them at once that will be created therein.

45: And I said, As you have said to your servant, that you, which gives life to all, have given life at once to the creature that you have created, and the creature bare it: even so it might now also bear them that now be present at once.

46: And he said to me, Ask the womb of a woman, and say to her, If you bring forth children, why do you it not together, but one after another? pray her therefore to bring forth ten children at once.

47: And I said, She cannot: but must do it by (its) distance (duration) of time.

48: Then said he to me, Even so have I given the womb of the earth to those that be sown in it in their times.

49: For like as a young child may not bring forth the things that belong to the aged, even so have I disposed the world which I created.

50: And I asked, and said, Seeing you have now given me the way, I will proceed to speak before you: for our mother, of whom you have told me that she is young, now draws near to age.

51: He answered me, and said, Ask a woman that bears children, and she will tell you.

52: Say to her, Why are they whom you have now brought forth like those that were before, but smaller?

53: And she will answer you, They that are born in the strength of youth are of one fashion, and they that are born in the (her) time of age, when the womb fails, are otherwise.

54: Consider therefore also, how that you are smaller than those that were before you.

55: And so are they that come after you less than you, as the creatures which now begin to be old, and have passed over the strength of youth.

56: Then I said, Lord, I beg you, if I have found favor in your sight, show your servant by whom you visit your creature.

4 Ezra Chapter 6

    1: And he said to me, In the beginning, when the earth was made, before the borders of the world stood, or ever the winds blew,

2: Before it thundered and lightened, or ever the foundations of paradise were laid,

3: Before the fair flowers were seen, or ever the moveable powers were established, before the innumerable multitude of angels were gathered together,

4: Or ever the heights of the air were lifted up, before the measures of the firmament were named, or ever the chimneys in Sion were hot,

5: And in the event the present years were sought out, and or if ever the inventions of them that now sin were turned, before they were sealed that have gathered faith for a treasure:

6: I then considered these things, and they all were made through me alone, and through none other: by me also they will be ended, and by none other.

7: Then I answered and said, What will be the splitting apart of the times and when will the end of the first, and the beginning of it that follows be ?

8: And he said to me, From Abraham to Isaac, when Jacob and Esau were born of him, Jacob’s hand held first the heel of Esau.

9: For Esau is the end of the world, and Jacob is the beginning of it that follows.

10: The hand of man is between the heel and the hand. Now, Esdras, do not ask any more questions.

11: I answered then and said, O Lord that upholds rule, if I have found favor in your sight,

12: I beg of you to show your servant the end of your tokens, that you showed me in part the last night.

13: So he answered and said to me, Stand up upon your feet, and hear a mighty sounding voice.