4 Esdras (2 Esdras) 4

And the angel who was sent to me, whose name was Uriel, answered me,

and said to me: Your heart has utterly gone beyond itself in this age, and you think to comprehend the way of the Most High.

And I said: Yes, my lord. And he answered me and said: I have been sent to show you three ways, and to set before you three likenesses.

If you can declare to me one of these, then I also will show you the way you long to see, and will teach you whence the evil heart comes.

And I said: Speak, my lord. And he said to me: Go, weigh for me the weight of fire, or measure for me a blast of wind, or call back for me the day that has passed.

And I answered and said: What man that is born could do this, that you should ask me about such things?

And he said to me: If I were asking you, saying: How many dwellings are in the heart of the sea, or how many springs at the source of the deep, or how many channels above the firmament, or which are the exits of Paradise,

perhaps you would say to me: I have not gone down into the deep, nor as yet into hell, nor have I ever ascended into heaven.

But now I have asked you only about fire, and wind, and the day through which you have passed, and from which you cannot be separated; and you have given me no answer concerning them.

And he said to me: You cannot understand the things that are your own, that grew up together with you;

and how then shall your vessel be able to grasp the way of the Most High, and, in a world already outwardly corrupted, to understand the corruption that is plain before my face?

And I said to him: It would be better for us not to exist, than still to live in ungodliness, and to suffer, and not to understand why.

And he answered me and said: I went forth to a forest of the trees of the plain, and they took counsel together,

and said: Come, let us go and make war upon the sea, that it may retreat before us, and that we may make for ourselves more forests.

And likewise the waves of the sea took counsel and said: Come, let us go up and subdue the forests of the plain, that there too we may win for ourselves another region.

But the counsel of the forest came to nothing, for fire came and consumed it.

And likewise the counsel of the waves of the sea, for the sand stood firm and held them back.

If now you were the judge of these, whom would you set out to justify, or whom to condemn?

And I answered and said: Surely they both took vain counsel. For the earth was given to the forest, and to the sea its place to bear its waves.

And he answered me and said: You have judged rightly; and why then did you not judge so for yourself?

For as the earth was given to the forest, and the sea to its waves, so those who dwell upon the earth can understand only the things that are upon the earth; and those who are above the heavens, the things that are above the height of the heavens.

And I answered and said: I beseech you, O Lord, that the power of understanding may be given to me.

For I did not wish to ask about things above you, but about those which pass before us daily: why Israel has been given over to reproach among the nations; why the people whom you loved has been handed to ungodly tribes; why the law of our fathers has been brought to nothing, and the written ordinances are nowhere;

and we pass out of the world like locusts, and our life is amazement and terror, and we are not even worthy to obtain mercy.

But what will he do for his name, by which we are called? It is about these things that I have asked.

And he answered me and said: If you live long, you will often marvel; for the age is hastening fast to pass away,

and it cannot bear the things that are promised to the righteous in the times to come; for this age is full of injustice and infirmities.

But concerning the things you ask, I will tell you: the evil has been sown, but its destruction has not yet come.

If therefore that which was sown is not turned over, and the place where the evil was sown does not pass away, the place where the good was sown will not come.

For a grain of evil seed was sown in the heart of Adam from the beginning; and how much ungodliness has it produced until now, and will continue to produce until the harvest comes?

Consider then within yourself: a grain of evil seed, how great a harvest of ungodliness has it produced.

When the ears of grain, which are without number, shall be reaped, how vast a harvest will they make?

And I answered and said: How, and when shall these things be? Why are our years few and evil?

And he answered me and said to me: Do not hasten beyond the Most High; for you hasten in vain to be above him. Your excess is great.

Did not the souls of the righteous in their storehouses ask about these very things, saying: How long must we hope thus? And when will the fruit of the threshing-floor of our reward come?

And the archangel Jeremiel answered them and said: When the number of seeds is fulfilled in you; for he has weighed the age in a balance,

and by measure has measured the times, and by number has numbered the times; and he will neither move nor stir until the appointed measure is fulfilled.

And I answered and said: O Lord, Sovereign, but we too are all full of ungodliness;

and perhaps it is because of us that the threshing-floors of the righteous are not filled, because of the sins of the inhabitants of the earth.

And he answered me and said: Go and ask a woman with child, whether, when she has completed her nine months, her womb can still hold the birth within it.

And I said: It cannot, Lord. And he said to me: In Hades the storehouses of souls are like the womb.

For just as she who gives birth hastens to escape the necessity of the birth, so these too hasten to render up what has been committed to them.

From the beginning there will be shown to you the things you long to see.

And I answered and said: If I have found grace before your eyes, and if it is possible, and if I am worthy,

show me whether more is yet to come than has passed, or whether more has passed than is to come.

What has passed I know; but what is to come, I do not know.

And he said to me: Stand at my right hand, and I will show you the interpretation of the likeness.

And I stood and looked, and behold, a blazing furnace passed before me. And it came to pass, when the flame had passed, I looked, and behold, the smoke remained.

After this a cloud full of water passed before me, and poured down a great downpour of rain; and when the rush of rain had passed, the drops remained in it.

And he said to me: Consider with yourself: as the rain is more than the drops, and the fire than the smoke, so what has passed in measure has far exceeded; but the drops and the smoke remained.

And I prayed and said: Do you think that I shall live until those days? Or what shall come to pass in those days?

He answered me and said: Concerning the signs about which you ask me, I can tell you in part; but concerning your life I was not sent to tell you, and I do not know.