Ezra Sutuel

And he answered and said to me: Measure carefully in your mind, and when you see that a part of the signs aforesaid is past, then understand that it is the time wherein the Most High is about to visit the world made by him.

And when there shall appear in the world earthquakes, uproar of peoples, intrigues of nations, wavering of leaders, confusion of princes,

then perceive that it is of these things the Most High has spoken formerly.

For as with respect to everything in the world, its beginning is known and its end manifest;

so also are the times of the Most High: their beginnings are known in portents, and signs and powers, and their end in requital and signs.

And it shall be that everyone that shall survive, and everyone that shall be able to flee through his works or through his faith whereby he has believed—

he shall be left safe from the peril aforesaid, and shall see my salvation in my land and in my borders which I have sanctified for myself eternally.

And then shall they be amazed who have now neglected my ways, and they shall be in torments who have despised and abandoned them.

For all who did not recognize me in their life, when I was dealing bountifully with them, and all who have treated my law with contempt, those who while the place of long-suffering was still open to them, did not heed, but scorned—for these it is necessary that after death they should know.

Do you, therefore, not search out henceforth how the ungodly shall be tormented, but inquire how the righteous shall live—they whose is the world, and for whom also the world has come into existence.

And I answered and said: Now also again I say, and hereafter will say again, that more are those who perish than those who live:

just as the waves are more than the small drop.

And he answered and said to me: As the place, so also are its seeds, and as the flowers, so also are the colors, and as the work, so also are the odors, and as the husbandman, so also is the threshing floor;

for there was in the time of the world when I had prepared for those who now are, before they were in existence, a world for them to live in; and no man withstood me—for indeed there was none.

And now that they have been created upon the world that stands firm, and upon a table that lacks not, and upon a law that is unsearchable, they are become corrupt in their deeds, and I regarded my world, and lo, it was lost! and my cosmos, and lo, it was in peril—on account of the manners of its inhabitants.

And I saw and spared a small few, and saved me a grape out of a cluster, and a plant out of a great forest.

Let the multitude, therefore, perish because it has come into being in vain; but let my grape be preserved, and my plant, which have been produced with much toil.

But if you will separate yourself seven more days—but you shall not again fast therein,

and go to a field of flowers, where no house has been built, and eat of the flowers of the field only, and flesh you shall not taste, nor shall you drink wine, but flowers only;

and petition the Most High zealously, and I will come to you and speak with you.

And I went, as he commanded me, into the field which is called Arpad, and sat there by the flowers of the land, and ate of the herbs of the pasture; and the eating thereof was to my satisfaction.

And it came to pass after seven days, as I lay upon the grass, that my heart again began to be moved upon me as before;

and my mouth was opened, and I began to speak before the Most High.

And I said: O Lord my Lord, you did truly reveal yourself to our fathers in the wilderness when they went forth out of Egypt, and when they went through the wilderness, through a land wherein was no fruit, and through which no man has passed;

and you said to them: Do you, Israel, hear me, and, seed of Jacob, listen to my words!

For, behold, I sow in you my law, and it shall produce in you fruits of righteousness, and you shall be glorified in it forever.

But our fathers received the law, and kept it not, and commandments, and did not perform them. And they had the fruits of the law which perish not, for they could not perish because it is yours.

Those, however, who received it perished, because they kept not what had been sown in them.

And this is the rule: that when the earth received seed, or the sea a ship, or any other vessel what has been put therein, namely the food, or what has been put, or what has been kept—these are destroyed, but these that received them remain.

But with us it has not been so; but we who have received the law and sin perish together with our heart which accepted it.

Your law, however, perished not, but abides in its glory.

And while I spoke these things in my heart, I lifted up my eyes and beheld a woman on the right side, mourning and weeping with a loud voice, while she sighed in her soul and was greatly distressed, and her clothes were rent, and dust was cast upon her head.

And I dismissed the thoughts which I was debating, and turned to her and said to her: Why do you weep, and are distressed in your soul?

And she answered and said to me: Suffer me, my lord, to weep unchecked and continue further to sigh, because my soul is greatly embittered and I am much humbled.

And I said to her: Tell me what has befallen you.

And she answered and said to me: I, your handmaid, was barren, and did not bear, though I was with my husband thirty years.

And I every day and every hour, during these thirty years, was petitioning and supplicating the Most High by day and by night.

And it came to pass after thirty years God heard the voice of your handmaid, and saw her humiliation; and looked upon my distress, and gave me a son. And I rejoiced and delighted in him greatly, I and my husband and all my fellow townsfolk, and we glorified the Mighty One;

and I reared him with very great toil.

And when he was grown up I came to take him a wife, and I made a day of feasting and much merriment.

And it came to pass that when my son entered into his wedding chamber he fell down and died.

But I overturned the lights, and all my fellow townsmen rose up to console me; and I remained quiet until the next day and until the night.

And after they were all asleep and believed that I also was asleep, then I arose by night, and fled and came, as behold, you see, to this field.

And I am resolved that I will not again enter the city, but that here I will be, and will neither eat nor drink, but will continually mourn and fast till I die.

And I dismissed my thoughts which I had been debating, and I answered in anger and said to her: You are more foolish, woman, than all women! Do you not see our grief and what has befallen us?

that lo, Zion, the mother of us all, is in great affliction, and humiliated with great humiliation?

But it is right now to mourn—we all mourn; for you indeed are grieved on account of one son, but we—the whole world—on account of our mother.

But ask the earth, and she shall tell you; because she is bound to mourn because many are they who have come into being upon her,

and from the beginning all who have come into being upon her, and the others who are to come, lo, they all go to perdition, and their multitude is for destruction.

Who then ought to mourn the more, she who has lost all this multitude, or you who mourn for one?

But if you say to me: My mourning is not like the earth's, because I have lost the fruit of my womb which I bore with pains, and reared with sorrows; the earth, however, according to the nature of the earth, the multitude that came upon it is gone as it came:

then I will again say to you: Just as you have borne with travail, so also the earth has given her fruit from the beginning, man, to him who made her.

Now, therefore, keep your pain to yourself, and bear bravely the evil that has befallen you!

For if you will acknowledge as just the decree of judgment of the Most High, you shall again receive your son in due time, and shall be praised among women.

Go, therefore, into the city to your husband.

And she answered and said to me: I will not do so, nor will I go into the city, nor to my husband, but here will I die!

And I continued further to speak with her, and I said to her: No, woman! Do not do this thing, but be convinced of Zion's misfortune, and be consoled because of Jerusalem's sorrow!

For behold, you have seen our sanctuaries laid waste, and our altar thrown down, our temple destroyed;

and our song taken away, and our hymning ceased, and the light of our lamp quenched, and the ark of the covenant carried off; and our holy vessels defiled, and the name that is called upon us polluted; and our nobles dishonored, and our priests burnt in the fire, and our Levites taken captive; and our virgins are defiled, and our wives forcibly dishonored; and our seers seized, and our watchmen scattered; and our youths enslaved, and our heroes made weak:

and what exceeded all—with regard to Zion's seal, the seal of her glory has been taken away now, and given up into the land of them that hate us!

Do you, then, shake off from yourself the multitude of your sorrows, so that the Mighty One may be reconciled to you, and the Most High may give you rest from the sorrows of your toil!

And it came to pass, while I was talking with her, and lo, her countenance shone exceedingly, and as the appearance of lightning became the look of her face. And I feared greatly. And while I was cogitating what this vision might be,

suddenly she cried with a loud and fearful voice, so that the whole earth was moved at her voice. And I saw, and lo, the woman was no longer visible to me, but a City that was builded, and a place became visible as of great foundations.

And I was afraid and cried with a loud voice and said, Where is the angel Uriel who from the first day came to me? Because it is he who has caused me to come into the multitude of this agitation, and my end is made corruption, and my prayer ignominy.

And while I was speaking these things, the angel came to me who had come to me formerly; and he saw me lying on the ground as though dead, and my understanding was confused; and he took me by my right hand and strengthened me, and set me upon my feet, and said to me:

What ails you? And why are you disquieted? And wherefore is your mind confused, and the understanding of your heart?

And I said to him: Because you have forsaken me! For I did as you bade me and went out into the field, and lo, I have seen—and see—that which I am unable to explain.

And he answered and said to me: Stand upon your feet, and I will make known to you.

And I said to him: Speak on, my Lord; and only do not forsake me lest I die before my time.

Because I have seen what I do not understand, and hear what I am incompetent to grasp.

Or is it that my understanding deceives me, and my soul beholds a dream?

But now I beseech you, my Lord, make known to your servant concerning this fearful vision.

And he answered and said to me: Hear me and I will teach you, and reveal to you concerning the things you are afraid of; because the Most High has revealed to you many secrets.

For he has seen your right conduct, how you grieve much for your people, and mourn much for Zion.

This, then, is the matter: The woman who appeared to you a little while ago, who was mourning and whom you did begin to console, and now she appears not as a woman to you, but has appeared to you as a City that is being built:

and whereas she told you of the misfortune of her son—this is the explanation:

This woman whom you have seen, this is Zion which you now see as a City being built.

And whereas she said to you concerning herself that she had been barren thirty years—it is because she was in the world three thousand years when no offering was yet offered in her.

And it came to pass after three thousand years Solomon built the city and offered therein offerings: then it was that the barren bore a son.

And whereas she told you that she reared him with labor—that is the dwelling of Jerusalem.

And whereas she said to you: My son entered into his marriage chamber and died—this was the fall and misfortune of Jerusalem.

And whereas you have seen her likeness, how that she mourns for her son, and you did begin to console her for what had befallen her—

And now the Most High has seen that you are grieved with all your soul, and with all your heart sorrow on her account: And he has shown you the light of her glory, and the beauty of her loveliness.

Therefore I bade you await me in the field where no house has been builded;

for I knew that the Most High was about to reveal all these things to you.

Therefore I bade you come into a place where no foundation of a building is; for no work of man could remain in the place where the City of the Most High was about to be revealed.

But be not you afraid, and let not your heart be disquieted, but go in and see the light of the glory and the vastness of her building, as far as the sight of your eyes allows you to see;

and afterwards you shall hear as far as the hearing of your ears allows you to hear.

For you are blessed above many, and are named before the Most High as but few!

But on the night of tomorrow you shall remain here; and the Most High will show you in dream-visions what the Most High will do to the inhabitants of the earth in the last days.