1AND it came to passe the third day, I sate vnder an oke, and behold a voice came out of a bush against me, and sayd: Esdras, Esdras.stylus2And I sayd: Here I am Lord. And I rose vpon my fete.stylus3And he sayd to me: I reuealing was reuealed to Moyses in the bush, when my people serued in AEgypt.stylus4And I sent him, and led my people out of AEgypt, and brought him to the mount of Sina, and held him with me manie dayes.stylus5And I told him manie meruelous thinges, and shewed him the secrets of times, and the end: and commanded him, saying:stylus6These wordes thou shalt declare, and these thou shalt hide.stylus7And now I say to thee:stylus8Keep the signes that I haue shewed thee, & the dreames that thou sawest, & the interpretations which thou hast heard, in thy hart.stylus9For thou shalt be receiued of al: and thou shalt be conuerted with the residue of my counsellers, with the like to thee, til the times be ended.stylus10For the world hath lost his youth, and the times beginne to waxe old.stylus11For the world is diuided into twelue parts, and the tenth part is past, and the half of the tenth part,stylus12and there is left that which is after the half of the tenth part.stylus13Now therfore dispose thy house, & reproue thy people, & comfort the humble of them, & renounce corruption now,stylus14and let goe from thee mortal cogitations, & cast from thee humane burdens, and put off now the weake nature,stylus15and lay a side the cogitations that are most burdenous to thee, ani hasten to migrate from these times.stylus16For as yet there shal worse euils come, then those which thou hast seene to happen now.stylus17For how much the world shal be weake by old age, so much shal euils be multiplied vpon the inhabiters.stylus18For truth shal be farder of, and lying shal approch: for the eagle hasteneth to come which thou sawest.stylus19And I answered, and sayd: before thee Lord.stylus20Behold I wil goe as thou hast commanded me, and I wil reproue the present people: but they that shal be borne, who shal admonish them?stylus21Therefore the world is set in darkenes, and they that dwel therein, are without light.stylus22Because thy law is burnt, therefore no man knoweth the thinges which are done of thee, or that shal beginne.stylus23But if I haue found grace before thee, send the Holie ghost into me, and I wil write al that hath bene done in the world from the beginning, which were written in thy law, that men may be able to finde the path, and that they which would liue in the later times, may liue.stylus24And he answered me, and sayd: Goe thy way, and gather the people, and tel them that they seeke thee not for fourtie dayes.stylus25But thou prepare thee box trees manie and take with thee Sareas, and Dabrias, and Selemia, and Ethanus, and Asiel, these fiue which are ready to write swiftly.stylus26And thou shalt come hither, and I wil light the candle of vnderstanding in thy hart, which shal not be put out, til the things be perfited which thou shalt beginne to write.stylus27And when thou hast perfited, some thou shalt publish: & some thou shalt deliuer secretely to the wise: in the next day at this houre thou shalt beginne to write.stylus28And I went as he commanded me, and gathered al the people, and sayd:stylus29Israel heare these wordes:stylus30Our fathers were pilgrims from the beginning in AEgypt, and were deliuered thence.stylus31And they receiued the law of life, which they kept not, which you also haue transgressed after them.stylus32And land was geuen you for a portion in the land of Sion, and you and your fathers haue done iniquitie, and haue not kept the wayes, which the Highest commanded you:stylus33and he as a iust iudge tooke from you in time, that which he had geuen.stylus34And now you are here, and your brethren are among you.stylus35If therfore you wil rule your sense, and instruct your hart, you shal be kept aliue, and after death you shal obtaine mercie.stylus36For iudgment cometh after death, when we shal liue againe: and then shal the names of the iust appeare, and the facts of the impious shal be shewed.stylus37But to me let no man come now, nor seeke me these fourtie dayes.stylus38And I tooke the fiue men as he commanded me, and we went into the field, and tarried there.stylus39And it came to passe the next day, and behold a voice called me: Esdras open thy mouth, and drinke that which I geue thee to drinke.stylus40And I opened my mouth, and behold there was reached to me a ful cup, and it was ful as it were of water, but the colour of it was like fire.stylus41And I tooke it, and dranke: and when I had drunke it, my hart was trubled with vnderstanding, and wisdome grewe in my brest: for my spirit retained memorie:stylus42and my mouth was opened, and was shut no more.stylus43The Highest gaue vnderstanding to the fiue men, and they wrote the visions of the night which were told, which they knew not: and they sate fourtie dayes.stylus44They wrote in the day, and at night they did eate bread.stylus45But I spake in the day, and by night held not my peace.stylus46And there were written in fourtie dayes two hundred foure bookes.stylus47And it came to passe when the fourtie dayes were fulfilled, and the Highest spake, saying: The first that thou hast written publish, and let the worthie and vnworthie reade:stylus48but the last seuentie thou shalt kepe, that thou mayst deliuer them to the wise of thy people.stylus49For in them is the vaine of vnderstanding, and the fountaine of wisdome, and the streame of knowledge. And I did so.stylus
