Ezra Sutuel

Then the angel who had been sent to me, whose name was Uriel, answered,

and said to me: Is your heart so perturbed regarding this world, and would you comprehend the way of the Most High?

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

If you can show me one of these, I will also show you the way you long to see, and I will teach you why the evil heart exists.

And I answered and said: Speak on, my Lord. And he answered and said to me: Come, weigh me the weight of fire, or measure the measure of the wind, or recall the day that is past.

And I said to him: Who of those born is able to do these things that you have spoken to me, that you should ask me about all these?

And he said to me: If I had asked you, How many chambers are in the heart of the sea? Or how many springs are in the sources of the deep? Or how many ways are above the firmament? Or what are the outlets of Sheol? Or what are the paths of Paradise?

You would have said to me: I have not descended into the deep, nor have I yet descended to Sheol, nor have I ever ascended to heaven.

But now I have not asked you concerning these, but concerning fire, wind, and the day—things through which you have passed and without which you cannot be—and you have said nothing to me concerning them.

And he said to me: You are incapable of understanding the things that grow up with you,

how then can your vessel comprehend the way of the Most High? For the way of the Most High has been created incomprehensible, nor is it possible that one who is corruptible in a corruptible world should know the way of him who is incorruptible.

And when I heard these things I fell upon my face and said to him: It would have been better for us if we had not come than, having come, that we should live in sin and suffer, and not know why we suffer.

And he answered and said to me: Once the woods of the trees of the plain went and deliberated together and said,

Come, let us go and make war with the sea that it may recede before us, and we will make us more woods.

The waves of the sea likewise deliberated together and said: Come let us go up and wage war with the wood of the plain, that there we may make another place for ourselves.

And the deliberation of the wood was in vain, for fire came and consumed it;

and likewise also the deliberation of the waves of the sea, for sand stood up and stopped them.

If then you had been judge of these, which of them would you have acquitted, and which of them would you have condemned?

And I answered and said: Both of them have deliberated a vain deliberation; for the land has been given to the wood, and the place of the sea to bear its waves.

And he answered and said to me: You have judged well! And why have you not judged your own self?

For as the land has been given to the wood, and the place of the sea to bear its waves, so also those who dwell upon the earth are able to understand only what is upon the earth, and he who is above heaven what is above heaven.

And I answered and said: I pray you, my Lord, why has understanding been given me for thought?

For I have not desired to ask about the way of what is above, but about those things which pass over us daily: for Israel is given up to the peoples, and the people you have loved is given up to godless tribes, and the holy law of our fathers is set at nothing, and the written covenants are no more;

and we pass from the world as locusts, and our life is as a breath. We indeed are not worthy that mercies should come upon us;

but what will he do for his great name which is called upon us? About these things I have asked.

And he answered and said to me: If you will be, you shall see; and if you live long, you shall marvel; because the world is hastening fast to pass away,

for it endures not to bear what has been promised to the righteous, because this world is full of sighing and many infirmities.

For the evil concerning which you asked me is sown, and its harvest is not yet come.

Unless, therefore, that which is sown be reaped, and the place be removed where the evil is sown, the land where the good is sown comes not.

Because that one grain of seed of evil was sown in the heart of Adam from the beginning, and how much fruit of ungodliness has it begotten until now, and shall yet beget until the harvest comes.

Do you now reckon up in your own mind and see how much fruit of ungodliness one grain of seed of evil that was sown has produced;

when, therefore, the ears of the good shall be sown, which are numberless, what a harvest are they destined to produce.

And I answered and said: How long and when shall these things be? For few and evil are our years.

And he answered and said to me: You may not hasten more than the Most High; for you are hastening for your own self, but the Most High for the sake of many.

For did not the souls of the righteous ask concerning these things in their chambers, and say: How long shall we be here? And when comes the harvest of our reward?

And the angel Remiel answered and said to them: Until the number of those like you be fulfilled! For the Holy One has weighed the world,

and with measure has he measured the times, and by number has he numbered the seasons, neither will he rest nor stir until the number appointed be fulfilled.

And I answered and said: O Lord my Lord, but behold, we are all full of ungodliness!

Is it perchance on our account that the reward of the righteous is withheld, on account of the sins of the inhabitants of the earth?

And he answered and said to me: Go and ask a woman who is pregnant if, when she completes her nine months, the womb can still hold the birth within her.

And I said: It cannot, my Lord. And he answered and said to me: Sheol and the chambers of souls are like the womb:

for she who is giving birth makes haste to escape from the anguish of her giving birth, so also do these hasten to give up what has been put in them from the beginning.

And then shall be revealed to you concerning the things you long to see.

And I answered and said: If I have found favor in your sight, and if it be possible and I am worthy,

show me this also, whether the time that has passed by us be more than that which is to come.

Because the time that is past I know, but what is future I know not.

And he answered and said to me: Stand on the right side, and I will show you the meaning of the similitude.

And I stood and saw, and behold, there passed before me a blazing fiery furnace; and it happened that when the flame had passed by I saw, and behold, the smoke remained.

And after this there passed before me a cloud filled with water, and poured down a very violent rain, and when the violence of the rain had passed, there remained in it drops.

And he answered and said to me: Consider in yourself and see, that as the rain exceeded the drops, and the fire the smoke, so the measure that is passed is excessive; but there remain the drops and the smoke.

And I besought him and said: Shall I then live until those days, or who shall be in those days?

And he answered and said to me: Concerning the signs about which you asked me, I can speak to you of them in part; but concerning your life I have not been sent to speak to you, for I have no knowledge.