Ezra Sutuel

And it came to pass that when I heard I stood upon my feet, and I heard, and lo, a voice of one speaking, and his voice was as the voice of many waters.

And he said: Behold, the days come, and it shall be, when I am drawing near to visit the dwellers upon earth,

and when I am about to require at the hands of evildoers, and when the humiliation of Zion shall be complete;

and when this world is about to be sealed, which is about to pass away—these signs I will do: the books shall be opened before the face of the firmament, and all shall see my judgment together.

Children one year old shall speak and utter their voice; and pregnant women untimely shall bear children at three and four months, and they shall live and dance.

And suddenly unsown places shall be found sown, and full storehouses shall suddenly be found empty;

and the trumpet shall call with a loud sound, which all shall hear suddenly and be affrighted.

And it shall come to pass in that time friends shall war with their friends as enemies, so that the earth shall be amazed with its inhabitants; and the outgoings of the springs shall stand still without running three hours.

And it shall be that everyone who survives all these things of which I have told you beforehand, he shall live and see my deliverance and the end of the world.

And then shall he see the men who have been taken up, who have not tasted death since their birth. And the heart of the inhabitants of the earth shall be transformed, and changed into a different mind.

For evil is blotted out and deceit extinguished;

and faith blossoms, and corruption is overcome; and truth appears which has remained without fruit so many years.

And it came to pass, while he spoke with me, that behold, little by little, the place on which I was standing shook.

And he said to me: These things I came to make known to you this night.

If, therefore, you will again supplicate and fast seven days more, I will reveal to you things greater than these.

Because your voice has surely been heard with the Most High; for the Mighty One has seen your purity, the holiness which has been yours from your youth.

And therefore has he sent me to reveal to you all these things. And he said to me: Take heart, and fear not!

And be not hasty to think evil of former times, lest inquisition come upon you in the last times.

And it came to pass after this I wept and fasted seven days that I might fulfill the three weeks which had been commanded me.

And it came to pass in the eighth night that lo, my heart was again moved within me, and I began to speak before the Most High;

because my spirit was greatly inflamed, and my soul was on fire.

And I said: O Lord my Lord, you did indeed speak at the beginning of your creation on the first day, and did command that heaven and earth should be, and your Word, O Lord, perfected the work.

And the Spirit was then hovering, and darkness and silence were on every side; the voice of man was not yet heard.

And on the third day you did command the waters to be gathered together to one of the seven parts of the earth; but six parts you did dry up and reserve that some of them might be serving before you and be both ploughed and sown.

But your own Word went forth, and immediately the work was done.

For then straightway there sprang forth fruits many, innumerable, and sweet in their tastes, of every sort; and flowers which in their forms were unlike one another, and odours which in their scents were indefinable. These came into being on the third day.

And on the fourth day you did command, and there came into being the shining sun, and the light of the moon, and the order of the stars;

and you did command them to serve man who was about to be formed by you.

And on the fifth day you did give command to the seventh part, where the waters were, that beasts and birds and fishes should come forth, and they came into being.

The dumb and lifeless waters were producing that in which there was life, that from these the generations might declare your wonders.

And then you did reserve two creatures which you had created; and you did call the name of the one Behemoth, and the name of the other you did call Leviathan.

And you did separate them, the one from the other, because that moist seventh part was unable to contain them.

And you did give to Behemoth one of the parts which had been dried up on the third day, that he might dwell there, where are a thousand mountains;

but to Leviathan you did give the seventh part, which is moist; and you have kept them to be devoured by whom you will and when.

And on the sixth day you did command the earth that it should bring forth before you cattle and beasts and creeping things. And over these you did appoint Adam as leader over all the works that you did create antecedently; and from him are we, the people whom you have chosen.

All this, however, I have spoken before you, O Lord my Lord, because you have said that for our sakes you did create this world;

but as for the rest of the peoples who are descended from Adam, you have said that they are nothing, and have likened them unto spittle, and to a drop from a bucket have you likened their abundance.

And now, O Lord, behold, these peoples which are reputed as nothing, behold, they lord it over us and crush us!

But we, your people, whom you have honored and have called firstborn and only begotten, near and beloved—lo, we are given up into their hands.

And if for our sakes the world was created, why do we not inherit our world? How long shall these things be?