And it happened upon the third day, I sat under an oak, and indeed, there came a voice out of a bush over against me, and said, Esdras, Esdras.
And I said, Here am I, Lord. And I stood up upon my feet.
Then he said to me, In the bush I did manifestly reveal myself to Moses, and talked with him, when my people served in Egypt:
And I sent him, and led my people out of Egypt, and brought him up to the mount of Sinai, where I held him by me a long season,
And told him many wondrous things, and showed him the secrets of the times, and the end; and commanded him, saying,
These words shall you declare, and these shall you hide.
And now I say to you,
That you lay up in your heart the signs that I have shown, and the dreams that you have seen, and the interpretations which you have heard:
For you shall be taken away from all, and from now on you shall remain with my Son, and with such as are like you, until the times be ended.
For the world has lost his youth, and the times begin to grow old.
For the world is divided into twelve parts, and the ten parts of it are gone already, and half of a tenth part:
And there remains that which is after the half of the tenth part.
Now therefore set your house in order, and reprove your people, comfort such of them as are in trouble, and now renounce corruption,
Let go from you mortal thoughts, cast away the burdens of man, put off now the weak nature,
And set aside the thoughts that are most heavy to you, and hasten to flee from these times.
For yet greater evils than those which you have seen happen shall be done hereafter.
For look how much the world shall be weaker through age, so much the more shall evils increase upon them that dwell therein.
For the truth is fled far away, and falsehood is hard at hand: for now hastens the vision to come, which you have seen.
Then answered I before you, and said,
Look, Lord, I will go, as you have commanded me, and reprove the people which are present: but they that shall be born afterward, who shall admonish them? thus the world is set in darkness, and they that dwell therein are without light.
For your law is burnt, therefore no man knows the things that are done of you, or the works that shall begin.
But if I have found grace before you, send the Holy Spirit into me, and I shall write all that has been done in the world since the beginning, which were written in your law, that men may find your path, and that they which will live in the latter days may live.
And he answered me, saying, Go your way, gather the people together, and say to them, that they seek you not for forty days.
But see that you prepare many box trees, and take with you Sarea, Dabria, Selemia, Ecanus, and Asiel, these five which are ready to write swiftly;
And come here, and I shall light a candle of understanding in your heart, which shall not be put out, till the things be performed which you shall begin to write.
And when you have done, some things shall you publish, and some things shall you show secretly to the wise: tomorrow this hour shall you begin to write.
Then went I forth, as he commanded, and gathered all the people together, and said,
Hear these words, O Israel.
Our fathers at the beginning were strangers in Egypt, from where they were delivered:
And received the law of life, which they kept not, which you also have transgressed after them.
Then was the land, even the land of Zion, parted among you by lot: but your fathers, and you yourselves, have done unrighteousness, and have not kept the ways which the Highest commanded you.
And since he is a righteous judge, he took from you in time the thing that he had given you.
And now are you here, and your brothers among you.
Therefore if so be that you will subdue your own understanding, and reform your hearts, you shall be kept alive, and after death you shall obtain mercy.
For after death shall the judgment come, when we shall live again: and then shall the names of the righteous be manifest, and the works of the ungodly shall be declared.
Let no man therefore come to me now, nor seek after me these forty days.
So I took the five men, as he commanded me, and we went into the field, and remained there.
And the next day, look, a voice called me, saying, Esdras, open your mouth, and drink that I give you to drink.
Then opened I my mouth, and indeed, he reached me a full cup, which was full as it were with water, but the color of it was like fire.
And I took it, and drank: and when I had drunk of it, my heart uttered understanding, and wisdom grew in my breast, for my spirit strengthened my memory:
And my mouth was opened, and shut no more.
The Highest gave understanding to the five men, and they wrote the wonderful visions of the night that were told, which they knew not: and they sat forty days, and they wrote in the day, and at night they ate bread.
As for me, I spoke in the day, and I held not my tongue by night.
In forty days they wrote two hundred and four books.
And it happened, when the forty days were fulfilled, that the Highest spoke, saying, The first that you have written publish openly, that the worthy and unworthy may read it:
But keep the seventy last, that you may deliver them only to such as are wise among the people:
For in them is the spring of understanding, the fountain of wisdom, and the stream of knowledge.
And I did so.