2 Esdras 10:29-59

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Uriel’s Interpretation of the Vision

²⁹ While I was speaking these words, the angel who had come to me at first came to me, and when he saw me^{(A) 30} lying there like a corpse, deprived of my understanding, he grasped my right hand and strengthened me and set me on my feet and said to me,^{(B) 31} “What is the matter with you? And why are you troubled? And why are your understanding and the thoughts of your mind troubled?”

³² I said, “It was because you abandoned me. I did as you directed and went out into the field, and behold, what I have seen and can still see, I am unable to explain.”^(C)

³³ He said to me, “Stand up like a man, and I will instruct you.”^(D)

³⁴ I said, “Speak, my lord; only do not forsake me, so that I may not die before my time.^{[a] 35} For I have seen what I did not know, and I hear^[b] what I do not understand ³⁶ —or is my mind deceived and my soul dreaming?^{(E) 37} Now therefore I beg you to give your servant an explanation of this bewildering vision.”

³⁸ He answered me and said, “Listen to me, and I will teach you and tell you about the things that you fear, for the Most High has revealed many secrets to you.^{(F) 39} He has seen your righteous conduct and that you have sorrowed continually for your people and mourned greatly over Zion.^{(G) 40} This therefore is the meaning of the vision. ⁴¹ The woman who appeared to you a little while ago, whom you saw mourning and whom you began to console^{(H) 42} (you do not now see the form of a woman, but there appeared to you a city being built)^{[c](I) 43} and who told you about the misfortune of her son—this is the interpretation: ⁴⁴ The woman whom you saw is Zion, which you now behold as a city being built.^{[d](J) 45} And as for her telling you that she was barren for thirty years, the reason is that there were three thousand^[e] years in the world before any offering was offered in it.^{[f](K) 46} And after three thousand^[g] years Solomon built the city and offered offerings; then it was that the barren woman bore a son.^{(L) 47} And as for her telling you that she brought him up with much care, that was the period of residence in Jerusalem. ⁴⁸ And as for her saying to you, ‘My son died as he entered his wedding chamber,’ and that misfortune had overtaken her,^[h] this was the destruction that befell Jerusalem.^{(M) 49} So you saw her likeness, how she mourned for her son, and you began to console her for what had happened.^{[i](N) 50} For now the Most High, seeing that you are sincerely grieved and profoundly distressed for her, has shown you the brilliance of her glory and the loveliness of her beauty. ⁵¹ Therefore I told you to remain in the field where no house had been built,^{(O) 52} for I knew that the Most High would reveal these things to you. ⁵³ Therefore I told you to go into the field where there was no foundation of any building,^{(P) 54} because no work of human construction could endure in a place where the city of the Most High was to be revealed.

⁵⁵ “Therefore do not be afraid, and do not let your heart be terrified, but go in and see the splendor or^[j] the vastness of the building, as far as it is possible for your eyes to see it,^{(Q) 56} and afterward you will hear as much as your ears can hear. ⁵⁷ For you are more blessed than many, and you have been called to be with^[k] the Most High as few have been.^{(R) 58} But tomorrow night you shall remain here, ⁵⁹ and the Most High will show you in those dream visions what the Most High will do to those who inhabit the earth in the last days.”

So I slept that night and the following one, as he had told me.^(S)