It came to pass in the thirtieth year, on the twenty-second of the month, I was in my house.
2And I cried out and said to the Most High: Lord, give the glory, in order that I may see Thy mysteries.
3And when it was night, there came an angel, Michael the archangel, and says to me: O Prophet Esdras, refrain from bread for seventy weeks.
4And I fasted as he told me.
5And there came Raphael the commander of the host, and gave me a storax rod.
6And I fasted twice sixty weeks.
7And I saw the mysteries of God and His angels.
8And I said to them: I wish to plead before God about the race of the Christians.
9It is good for a man not to be born rather than to come into the world.
10I was therefore taken up into heaven, and I saw in the first heaven a great army of angels; and they took me to the judgments.
11And I heard a voice saying to me: Have mercy on us, O thou chosen of God, Esdras.
12Then began I to say: Woe to sinners when they see one who is just more than the angels, and they themselves are in the Gehenna of fire!
13And Esdras said: Have mercy on the works of Thine hands, Thou who art compassionate, and of great mercy.
14Judge me rather than the souls of the sinners; for it is better that one soul should be punished, and that the whole world should not come to destruction.
15And God said: I will give rest in paradise to the righteous, and I have become merciful.
16And Esdras said: Lord, why dost Thou confer benefits on the righteous? for just as one who has been hired out, and has served out his time, goes and again works as a slave when he come to his masters, so also the righteous has received his reward in the heavens.
17But have mercy on the sinners, for we know that Thou art merciful.
18And God said: I do not see how I can have mercy upon them.
19And Esdras said: They cannot endure Thy wrath.
20And God said: This is the fate of such.
21And God said: I wish to have thee like Paul and John, as thou hast given me uncorrupted the treasure that cannot be stolen, the treasure of virginity, the bulwark of men.
22And Esdras said: It is good for a man not to be born.
23It is good not to be in life.
24The irrational creatures are better than man, because they have no punishment; but Thou hast taken us, and given us up to judgment.
25Woe to the sinners in the world to come! because their judgment is endless, and the flame unquenchable.
26And while I was thus speaking to him, there came Michael and Gabriel, and all the apostles; and they said: Rejoice, O faithful man of God!
27And Esdras said: Arise, and come hither with me, O Lord, to judgment.
28And the Lord said: Behold, I give thee my covenant between me and thee, that you may receive it.
29And Esdras said: Let us plead in Thy hearing.
30And God said: Ask Abraham your father how a son pleads with his father, and come plead with us.
31And Esdras said: As the Lord liveth, I will not cease pleading with Thee in behalf of the race of the Christians.
32Where are Thine ancient compassions, O Lord?
33Where is Thy long-suffering?
34And God said: As I have made night and day, I have made the righteous and the sinner; and he should have lived like the righteous.
35And the prophet said: Who made Adam the first-formed?
36And God said: My undefiled hands.
37And I put him in paradise to guard the food of the tree of life; and thereafter he became disobedient, and did this in transgression.
38And the prophet said: Was he not protected by an angel? and was not his life guarded by the cherubim to endless ages? and how was he deceived who was guarded by angels? for Thou didst command all to be present, and to attend to what was said by Thee.
39But if Thou hadst not given him Eve, the serpent would not have deceived her; but whom Thou wilt Thou savest, and whom Thou wilt Thou destroyest.
40And the prophet said: Let us come, my Lord, to a second judgment.
41And God said: I cast fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah.
42And the prophet said: Lord, Thou dealest with us according to our deserts.
43And God said: Your sins transcend my clemency.
44And the prophet said: Call to mind the Scriptures, my Father, who hast measured out Jerusalem, and set her up again.
45Have mercy, O Lord, upon sinners; have mercy upon Thine own creatures; have pity upon Thy works.
46Then God remembered those whom He had made, and said to the prophet: How can I have mercy upon them?
47Vinegar and gall did they give me to drink, and not even then did they repent.
48And the prophet said: Reveal Thy cherubim, and let us go together to judgment; and show me the day of judgment, what like it is.
49And God said: Thou hast been deceived, Esdras; for such is the day of judgment as that in which there is no rain upon the earth; for it is a merciful tribunal as compared with that day.
50And the prophet said: I will not cease to plead with Thee, unless I see the day of the consummation.
51And God said: Number the stars and the sand of the sea; and if thou shalt be able to number this, thou art also able to plead with me.
52And the prophet said: Lord, Thou knowest that I wear human flesh; and how can I count the stars of the heaven, and the sand of the sea?
53And God said: My chosen prophet, no man will know that great day and the appearing that comes to judge the world.
54For thy sake, my prophet, I have told thee the day; but the hour have I not told thee.
55And the prophet said: Lord, tell me also the years.
56And God said: If I see the righteousness of the world, that it has abounded, I will have patience with them; but if not, I will stretch forth my hand, and lay hold of the world by the four quarters, and bring them all together into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will wipe out the race of men, so that the world shall be no more.
57And the prophet said: And how can Thy right hand be glorified?
58And God said: I shall be glorified by my angels.
59And the prophet said: Lord, if Thou hast resolved to do this, why didst Thou make man?
60Thou didst say to our father Abraham, Multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand that is by the sea-shore; and where is Thy promise?
61And God said: First will I make an earthquake for the fall of four-footed beasts and of men; and when you see that brother gives up brother to death, and that children shall rise up against their parents, and that a woman forsakes her own husband, and when nation shall rise up against nation in war, then will you know that the end is near.