Lost Books of the Bible (161 page)

55: And therefore ask no more questions concerning the multitude of them that perish.

56: For when they had taken liberty, they despised the most High, thought scorn of his law, and forsook his ways.

57: Moreover they have trodden down his righteous,

58: And said in their heart, that there is no God;  even knowing they must die.

59: For as the things said before will receive you, so thirst and pain are prepared for them, for it was not his will that men should come to nothing:

60: But they which be created have defiled the name of him that made them, and were unthankful to him which prepared life for them.

61: And therefore is my judgment now at hand.

62: These things have I not showed to all men, but to you, and a few like you. Then I answered and said,

63: Look Lord, now you showed me the multitude of wonders, which you will begin to do in the last times; but at what time, you have not showed me.

4 Ezra Chapter 9

1: He answered me then, and said, Measure the time diligently in itself and when you see some of the signs past, which I have told you before,

2: Then will you understand, that it is the very same time, wherein the Highest will begin to visit the world which he made.

3: Therefore when there will be seen earthquakes and uproars of the people in the world:

4: Then will you well understand, that the most High spoke of those things from the days that were before you, even from the beginning.

5: For like as all that is made in the world has a beginning and an end, and the end is manifest:

6: Even so the times also of the Highest have plain beginnings in wonder and powerful works, and endings in effects and signs.

7: And every one that will be saved, and will be able to escape by his works, and by faith, whereby you have believed,

8: Will be preserved from the said perils, and will see my salvation in my land, and within my borders for I have sanctified them for me from the beginning.

9: Then will they be in pitiful case, which now have abused my ways and they that have cast them away despitefully will dwell in torments.

10: For such as in their life have received benefits, and have not known me;

11: And they that have hated my law while they had yet liberty, and, when as yet place of repentance was open to them, understood not, but despised it;

12: The same must know it after death by pain.

13: And therefore be you not curious how the ungodly will be punished, and when, but enquire how the righteous will be saved, whose the world is, and for whom the world is created.

14: Then I answered and said,

15: I have said before, and now do speak, and will speak it also hereafter, that there be many more of them which perish, than of them which will be saved.

16: Like as a wave is greater than a drop.

17: And he answered me, saying, As the field is, so is also the seed; as the flowers be, such are the colors also; such as the workman is, such also is the work; and as the husbandman is himself, so is his husbandry also; for it was the time of the world.

18: And now when I prepared the world, which was not yet made, even for them to dwell in that now live, no man spoke against me.

19: For then every one obeyed but now the manners of them which are created in this world that is made are corrupted by a perpetual seed, and rid themselves by a law which is unsearchable.

20: So I considered the world, and, behold, there was peril because of the  schemes and actions that were come into it.

21: And I saw, and heartily spared it, and have kept me a grape of the cluster, and a plant of a great people.

22: Let the multitude perish then which was born in vain; and let my grape be kept, and my plant; for with great labor have I made it perfect.

23: Nevertheless, if you will cease yet seven days more, (but you will not fast in them,

24: But go into a field of flowers, where no house is built, and eat only the flowers of the field; taste no flesh, drink no wine, but eat flowers only);

25: And pray to the Highest continually, then will I come and talk with you.

26: So I went my way into the field which is called Ardath, as he commanded me; and there I sat among the flowers, and did eat of the herbs of the field, and the meat of the same satisfied me.

27: After seven days I sat upon the grass, and my heart was vexed within me, like as before;

28: And I opened my mouth, and began to talk before the most High, and said,

29: O Lord, you that show yourself to us, you was showed to our fathers in the wilderness, in a place where no man walks, in a barren place, when they came out of Egypt.

30: And you spoke saying, Hear me, O Israel; and mark my words, you seed of Jacob.

31: For, behold, I sow my law in you, and it will bring fruit in you, and you will be honored in it for ever.

32: But our fathers, who received the law, kept it not, and observed not your ordinances; and though the fruit of your law did not perish, neither could it, for it was yours;

33: Yet they that received it perished, because they kept not the thing that was sown in them.

34: And, lo, it is a custom, when the ground has received seed, or the sea a ship, or any vessel meat or drink, that, that being perished wherein it was sown or cast into,

35: That thing also which was sown, or cast therein, or received, doth perish, and remains not with us but with us it has not happened so.

36: For we that have received the law perish by sin, and our heart also which received it

37: Notwithstanding the law perishes not, but remains in his force.

38: And when I spoke these things in my heart, I looked back with mine eyes, and upon the right side I saw a woman, and, behold, she mourned and wept with a loud voice, and was much grieved in heart, and her clothes were rent, and she had ashes upon her head.

39: Then let I my thoughts go that I was in, and turned me to her,

40: And said to her, Why do you weep? Why are you so grieved in your mind?

41: And she said to me, Sir, let me alone, that I may bewail myself and add to my sorrow, for I am sore vexed in my mind, and brought very low.

42: And I said to her, What ails you? Tell me.

43: She said to me, I, your servant, have been barren and had no child, though I had an husband thirty years,

44: And those thirty years I did nothing else day and night, and every hour, but make my, prayer to the Highest.

45: After thirty years God heard me, your handmaid, looked upon my misery, considered my trouble, and gave me a son; and I was very glad of him, so was my husband also, and all my neighbors: and we gave great honor to the Almighty.

46: And I nourished him with great travail.

47: So when he grew up, and came to the time that he should have a wife, I made a feast.

4 Ezra Chapter 10

1: And it so came to pass, that when my son was entered into his wedding chamber, he fell down, and died.

2: Then we all overthrew the lights, and all my neighbors rose up to comfort me so I took my rest to the second day at night.

3: And  when they had all left off to comfort me, to the end I might be quiet; then rose I up by night and fled, and came hither into this field, as you see.

4: And I do now purpose not to return into the city but here to stay, and neither to eat nor drink, but continually to mourn and to fast until I die.

5: Then I left the meditations wherein I was, and spoke to her in anger, saying,

6: You foolish woman above all other, see you not our mourning, and what happens to us?

7: How that Sion, our mother, is full of all heaviness and much humbled, mourning very sore?

8: And now, seeing we all mourn and are sad, for we are all in heaviness, are you grieved for one son?

9: For ask the earth, and she will tell you, that it is she which ought to mourn for the fall of so many that grow upon her.

10: For out of her came all at the first, and out of her will all others come, and, behold, they walk almost all into destruction, and a multitude of them is utterly pulled up by the roots.

11: Who then should make more mourning than she, that has lost so great a multitude; and not you, which are sorry but for one?

12: But if you say to me, My lamentation is not like the earth’s, because I have lost the fruit of my womb, which I brought forth with pains, and bare with sorrows;

13: But the earth not so for the multitude present in it according to the course of the earth is gone, as it came:

14: Then say I to you, Like as you have brought forth with labor; even so the earth also has given her fruit, namely man, ever since the beginning to him that made her.

15: Now therefore keep your sorrow to yourself, and bear with a good courage that which has befallen you.

16: For if you will acknowledge the determination of God to be just, you will both receive your son in time, and will be commended among women.

17: Go your way then into the city to your husband.

18: And she said to me, That will I not do, I will not go into the city, but here will I die.

19: So I proceeded to speak further to her, and said,

20: Do not so, but be counseled by me; for how many are the adversities of Sion? Be comforted in regard of the sorrow of Jerusalem.

21: For you see that our sanctuary is laid waste, our altar broken down, our temple destroyed;

22: Our psaltery is laid on the ground, our song is put to silence, our rejoicing is at an end, the light of our candlestick is put out, the ark of our covenant is spoiled, our holy things are defiled, and the name that is called upon us is almost profaned.  Our children are put to shame, our priests are burnt, our Levites are gone into captivity, our virgins are defiled, and our wives ravished; our righteous men carried away, our little ones destroyed, our young men are brought in bondage, and our strong men are become weak;

23: And, which is the greatest of all, the seal of Sion has now lost her honor; for she is delivered into the hands of them that hate us.

24: And therefore shake off your great heaviness, and put away the multitude of sorrows, that the Mighty may be merciful to you again, and the Highest will give you rest and ease from your labor.

25: And  while I was talking with her, behold, her face upon a sudden shined exceedingly, and her countenance glistered, so that I was afraid of her, and mused what it might be.

26: And, behold, suddenly she made a great cry very fearful: so that the earth shook at the noise of the woman.

27: And I looked, and, behold, the woman appeared to me no more, but there was a city built, and a large place showed itself from the foundations: then was I afraid, and cried with a loud voice, and said,

28: Where is Uriel the angel, who came to me at the first, for he has caused me to fall into many trances, and mine end is turned into corruption, and my prayer to rebuke?