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The Lord Commissions Ezra

14On the third day, while I was sitting under an oak, suddenly a voice came out of a bush opposite me and said, ‘Ezra, Ezra!’ ²And I answered, ‘Here I am, Lord’, and I rose to my feet. ³Then he said to me, ‘I revealed myself in a bush and spoke to Moses when my people were in bondage in Egypt; ⁴and I sent him and led^* my people out of Egypt; and I led him up on Mount Sinai, where I kept him with me for many days. ⁵I told him many wondrous things, and showed him the secrets of the times and declared to him^* the end of the times. Then I commanded him, saying, ⁶“These words you shall publish openly, and these you shall keep secret.” ⁷And now I say to you: ⁸Lay up in your heart the signs that I have shown you, the dreams that you have seen, and the interpretations that you have heard; ⁹for you shall be taken up from among humankind, and henceforth you shall live with my Son and with those who are like you, until the times are ended. ¹⁰The age has lost its youth, and the times begin to grow old. ¹¹For the age is divided into twelve parts, and nine^* of its parts have already passed, ¹²as well as half of the tenth part; so two of its parts remain, besides half of the tenth part.^{* 13}Now therefore, set your house in order, and reprove your people; comfort the lowly among them, and instruct those that are wise.^* And now renounce the life that is corruptible, ¹⁴and put away from you mortal thoughts; cast away from you the burdens of humankind, and divest yourself now of your weak nature; ¹⁵lay to one side the thoughts that are most grievous to you, and hurry to escape from these times. ¹⁶For evils worse than those that you have now seen happen shall take place hereafter. ¹⁷For the weaker the world becomes through old age, the more shall evils be increased upon its inhabitants. ¹⁸Truth shall go farther away, and falsehood shall come near. For the eagle^* that you saw in the vision is already hurrying to come.’

Ezra’s Concern to Restore the Scriptures

19 Then I answered and said, ‘Let me speak^* in your presence, Lord. ²⁰For I will go, as you have commanded me, and I will reprove the people who are now living; but who will warn those who will be born hereafter? For the world lies in darkness, and its inhabitants are without light. ²¹For your law has been burned, and so no one knows the things which have been done or will be done by you. ²²If then I have found favour with you, send the holy spirit into me, and I will write everything that has happened in the world from the beginning, the things that were written in your law, so that people may be able to find the path, and that those who want to live in the last days may do so.’

23 He answered me and said, ‘Go and gather the people, and tell them not to seek you for forty days. ²⁴But prepare for yourself many writing-tablets, and take with you Sarea, Dabria, Selemia, Ethanus, and Asiel—these five, who are trained to write rapidly; ²⁵and you shall come here, and I will light in your heart the lamp of understanding, which shall not be put out until what you are about to write is finished. ²⁶And when you have finished, some things you shall make public, and some you shall deliver in secret to the wise; tomorrow at this hour you shall begin to write.’

Ezra’s Last Words to the People

27 Then I went as he commanded me, and I gathered all the people together, and said, ²⁸‘Hear these words, O Israel. ²⁹At first our ancestors lived as aliens in Egypt, and they were liberated from there ³⁰and received the law of life, which they did not keep, which you also have transgressed after them. ³¹Then land was given to you for a possession in the land of Zion; but you and your ancestors committed iniquity and did not keep the ways that the Most High commanded you. ³²And since he is a righteous judge, in due time he took from you what he had given. ³³And now you are here, and your people^* are farther in the interior.^{* 34}If you, then, will rule over your minds and discipline your hearts, you shall be kept alive, and after death you shall obtain mercy. ³⁵For after death the judgement will come, when we shall live again; and then the names of the righteous shall become manifest, and the deeds of the ungodly shall be disclosed. ³⁶But let no one come to me now, and let no one seek me for forty days.’

The Restoration of the Scriptures

37 So I took the five men, as he commanded me, and we proceeded to the field, and remained there. ³⁸And on the next day a voice called me, saying, ‘Ezra, open your mouth and drink what I give you to drink.’ ³⁹So I opened my mouth, and a full cup was offered to me; it was full of something like water, but its colour was like fire. ⁴⁰I took it and drank; and when I had drunk it, my heart poured forth understanding, and wisdom increased in my breast, for my spirit retained its memory, ⁴¹and my mouth was opened and was no longer closed. ⁴²Moreover, the Most High gave understanding to the five men, and by turns they wrote what was dictated, using characters that they did not know.^* They sat for forty days; they wrote during the daytime, and ate their bread at night. ⁴³But as for me, I spoke in the daytime and was not silent at night. ⁴⁴So during the forty days, ninety-four^* books were written. ⁴⁵And when the forty days were ended, the Most High spoke to me, saying, ‘Make public the twenty-four^* books that you wrote first, and let the worthy and the unworthy read them; ⁴⁶but keep the seventy that were written last, in order to give them to the wise among your people. ⁴⁷For in them is the spring of understanding, the fountain of wisdom, and the river of knowledge.’ ⁴⁸And I did so.^*