2 Esdras 11:36-12:6

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

A Lion Roused from the Forest

³⁶ Then I heard a voice saying to me, “Look in front of you and consider what you see.” ³⁷ When I looked, I saw what seemed to be a lion roused from the forest, roaring, and I heard how it uttered a human voice to the eagle and spoke, saying,^{(A) 38} “Listen, and I will speak to you. The Most High says to you, ³⁹ ‘Are you not the one that remains of the four beasts that I had made to reign in my world, so that the end of my times might come through them?^{(B) 40} You, the fourth that has come, have conquered all the beasts that have gone before, and you have held sway over the world with great terror and over all the earth with grievous oppression, and for so long you have lived on the earth with deceit.^{[a](C) 41} You have judged the earth but not with truth, ⁴² for you have oppressed the meek and injured the peaceable; you have hated those who tell the truth and have loved liars; you have destroyed the homes of those who brought forth fruit and have laid low the walls of those who did you no harm. ⁴³ Your insolence has come up before the Most High and your pride to the Mighty One. ⁴⁴ The Most High has looked at his times; now they have ended, and his ages have reached completion. ⁴⁵ Therefore you, eagle, will surely disappear, you and your terrifying wings, your most evil little wings, your malicious heads, your most evil talons, and your whole worthless body,^{(D) 46} so that the whole earth, freed from your violence, may be refreshed and relieved and may hope for the judgment and mercy of him who made it.’ ”

12 While the lion was saying these words to the eagle, I looked ² and saw that the remaining head had disappeared. The two wings that had gone over to it rose up and^[b] set themselves up to reign, and their reign was brief and full of tumult.^{(E) 3} When I looked again, they were already vanishing. The whole body of the eagle was burned, and the earth was exceedingly terrified.

Then I woke up in great perplexity of mind and great fear, and I said to my spirit, ⁴ “You have brought this upon me because you search out the ways of the Most High.^{(F) 5} I am still weary in mind and very weak in my spirit, and not even a little strength is left in me because of the great fear with which I have been terrified tonight.^{(G) 6} Therefore I will now entreat the Most High that he may strengthen me to the end.”