Ezra Sutuel

And it came to pass after I had finished speaking these words, lo, there was sent to me the angel that had been sent to me on former nights.

And he said to me: Stand up, Ezra, and hear the words that I have come to say to you. And I said to him: Speak on, my Lord.

And he answered and said to me: If a sea be set in a wide place, so that it is broad and unlimited, but its entrance is set in a narrow place, so that it is like a river;

and if a man desire to enter upon the sea, and to behold it and master it, if then he do not pass through the narrow, how shall he be able to come into the broad?

Again, another thing: There is a city that is built and set in a large place of the valley, and that city is full of many good things;

and its entrance is narrow and set on a height, so that there is fire on the right hand, and on the left deep waters;

and a single path is set between these two, between the fire and the waters, so that that path only suffices for a man's footstep alone. If now that city be given for an inheritance, unless that heir pass through the danger that is set, how shall he be able to receive his inheritance?

And I said to him: It is indeed so, my Lord! And he answered and said to me: So also is Israel's portion;

for, for their sakes I made the world: and when Adam transgressed my commandments, that which had been made was condemned.

And on this account the entrances of this present world became narrow and full of sighing and travail and many dangers, and much weariness together with sicknesses and pains;

but the entrances of that future world are broad and carefree, and produce fruits that do not die.

Unless, then, the living pass through the tribulation and these evils, they shall not be able to receive what has been kept for them.

But now why are you perturbed that you are corruptible, and why are you moved that you are mortal?

And why have you not considered what is to come, but only what is present?

And I answered and said: O Lord, my Lord, but lo, you have ordained in your law that the righteous are to inherit these things, but the ungodly are to perish.

The righteous, therefore, endure well the tribulations because they hope to inherit the spacious things; but the ungodly bear the tribulations and do not see the spacious things.

And he answered and said to me: You are not wiser than God, nor of greater understanding than the Most High!

Therefore let the many who have come perish on the ground that through them the law has been despised which was established by me!

For God gave a commandment to them that have come, then when they came, as to what they should do and live, and what they should observe and not be punished.

But they resisted and obeyed him not, and they devised for themselves vain thoughts, and they added for themselves treacheries of apostasy;

and beyond all this they affirmed that the Most High exists not, and did not recognize his ways!

And his law they despised, and his covenants they denied, and believed not his commandments, and spurned his works.

Therefore, O Ezra, empty things for the empty, and full things for those who are full.

For behold the days come, and it shall be when the signs come which I have foretold to you, and the bride shall be revealed, appearing as a city, and there shall be revealed she that is now cut off:

and whoever is delivered from these evils which have been predicted, he shall see my wonders.

For my son the Messiah shall be revealed together with those who are with him, and shall rejoice those that remain thirty years.

And it shall be after these years my son the Messiah shall die, and all those in whom is human breath.

And the world shall return to its first silence seven days, as it was at the beginning, so that no man is left.

And it shall be after seven days that world shall be awakened, which now is not awake, and corruption shall perish.

And the earth shall give up those that sleep in her, and the dust shall give up those that repose therein, and the chambers shall give up the souls that were put in them.

And the Most High shall be revealed upon the throne of judgment, and compassion pass away, and pity be far off, and long-suffering be gathered;

But my judgment alone shall remain, and truth shall stand, and faith flourish;

And the work shall come, and the reward be made known; and acts of righteousness shall awake and acts of ungodliness shall not sleep.

And the pit of torment shall appear, but over against this the place of rest; the furnace of Gehenna shall be revealed, and over against it the Paradise of delights.

And then shall the Most High say to those nations that have been raised: Gaze and see what you have denied,

whom you have not served, whose commandments you have despised!

Look on this side and on that; here are delight and rest, and there are fire and torments. Thus shall he speak to them on the day of judgment.

This is a day that has neither sun nor moon nor stars,

neither cloud nor thunder nor lightning, neither wind nor water nor air, neither darkness nor evening nor morning,

neither summer nor spring nor heat nor winter nor cold nor frost, nor hail nor rain nor dew,

neither noon nor night nor dawn, neither shining nor brightness nor light, save only the splendor of the glory of the Most High, whereby all shall see what is prepared for them.

For it will last as it were for a week of years.