Ezra Sutuel

And I fasted seven days, sighing and weeping, even as Ramiel the angel commanded me.

And it came to pass after seven days the thoughts of my heart were again oppressing me greatly.

And my soul received the spirit of intelligence, and I began again to speak before the Most High these words of supplication and entreaty:

And I answered and said: O Lord my Lord, from all the woods of the earth and the trees thereof you have chosen for yourself one vine;

and from all the lands of the world you have chosen for yourself one place;

and from all the deeps of the sea you have enlarged for yourself one stream, and from all the flowers of the world you have chosen for yourself one flower; and from all the cities that have been built you have sanctified Zion to yourself;

and from all birds that have been created you have named for yourself one dove; and from all cattle that have been created you have selected one sheep;

and from the multitude of the peoples you have brought near to yourself one people; and the law which was approved from among all you have given to the people whom you have loved.

And now, O Lord, why have you delivered up one to many, and have dishonored the one root above the many, and have scattered and dispersed your only one among the many?

And those who resist your commandments have trodden under foot them that have believed your covenant.

And if you hated your people so much, the obligation was that they should be punished with your own hands.

And after I had spoken these words, the angel was sent to me, that had been sent to me in the night that was past,

and said to me: Hear me, and I will inform you; look at me, and I will set words before you.

And I answered and said to him: Speak on, my Lord. And he said to me: Are you perturbed?

And I said: No, my Lord! But I am in sore pain, and spoke because my reins scourge me every hour; because I seek to comprehend the decree of judgment of the Most High, and I would search out something of his judgment.

And he said to me: You cannot. And I said to him: Why, my Lord, am I not able? Or why was I born, and why did not my mother's womb become my grave, that I might not see Jacob's travail and the toil of Israel's seed?

And he answered and said to me: Number me those who are not yet come, and gather me the drops that are scattered, and make bloom for me the flowers that are withered;

and open me the chambers that are closed, and bring me forth the winds held captive in them; and show me the likeness of persons whom you have never seen, or show me the likeness of a voice; and then I will inform you concerning the travail and the time that you ask to see.

And I said: O Lord, my Lord, who is there who could know these things except him who dwells not with men?

I, however, am foolish and weak; how should I be able to speak concerning these things which you have asked me?

And he said to me: Just as you are unable to do one of the things that have been mentioned, so you are unable to find out my judgment or the end of the love which I have promised to my people.

And I said: But, my Lord, behold you have made the promise to those who are in the End; but what shall they do who were before us, or we ourselves, or those who follow us?

And he answered and said to me: I have made my judgment like a crown; just as there is no posteriority for the last, so also there is no priority for the first.

And I answered and said: Could you not then, perhaps, have made those who have been and those who are and those who shall be all at once, that you might make known your judgment quickly?

And he answered and said to me: The creation hastens not faster than its Creator; otherwise, indeed, the world could not endure those created in it all at once.

And I again answered and said: And how is it you have just now said to your servant that you will surely revive your creation, which has been?

And he answered and said to me: Ask the womb of a woman, and say to it: If you bear ten children, why do you bear them at different times? Demand, therefore, from it that it produce its ten at once.

And I said: It cannot, my Lord, except at different times.

And he said to me: I also have made the earth the womb of those who come upon it at different times.

For just as the child does not bear, nor she that is aged any more, so also have I ordered the world that I have created.

And I asked him and said: Now that you have given me the way, I would speak before you. Our mother Zion, of whom you have spoken to me, is she really, my Lord, still young, or already approaching old age?

And he answered and said to me: Ask a woman that bears, and let her tell you;

say to her: Why are those whom you bear now not like the former ones, but inferior in size?

And she also shall say to you: Those born in the vigor of youth are of one fashion; and those born in old age, when the womb is diminished, are of another.

Do you also look and see that you are inferior in size to those who preceded you;

they also that come after you shall be inferior to you, because the creation has already grown old, and the vigor of her youth is past.

And I answered and said: I beseech you, my Lord, if I have found favor before you, tell your servant by whom you will visit your creation.

And he answered and said to me: The beginning by the hand of man, but the end by my own hands.

For as before the land of the world existed, and before the outgoings of the world were standing, and before the weights of the winds blew;

and before the voice of the thunders was heard, and before the lightning flashes did shine; and before the land of Paradise was founded;

and before the beauty of the flowers was seen; and before the power of the commotions was strengthened, and before the numberless armies of angels were gathered;

and before the height of the air was uplifted, and before the measures of the firmaments were named; and before the footstool of Zion was strengthened;

and before the years that are present were sought out; and before the follies of present-day sinners were conceived, and before those who have gathered for themselves the treasures of faith were sealed;

then it was I thought, and all these things came into being by my own hand alone and not by the hands of another.

And I answered and said: What is the dividing asunder of the times? Or when is the end of the first age, or what the beginning of the second?

And he answered and said to me: From Abraham until Abraham. From Abraham were begotten Jacob and Esau; and the hand of Jacob was holding Esau's heel.

The heel of the first is Esau, and the hand of the second is Jacob;

for the first of a man is his hand; and the end of a man is his heel. Thus between heel and hand do you seek nothing else, O Ezra.

And I answered and said: O Lord my Lord: If I have found favor in your sight, make known to your servant the end of the signs, which you have made known to me in part in the night that is past.

And he answered and said to me: Stand up upon your feet, and you shall hear a loud voice.

And it shall be that if the place whereon you stand be greatly shaken, while speech is made with you, you shall not be terrified; because the speech is concerning the report of the End, and the foundations of the earth shall understand that the speech is concerning them; and they shall tremble.