2 Esdras 14:19-26

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Ezra’s Concern to Restore the Scriptures

¹⁹ Then I answered and said, “Let me speak^[a] in your presence, Lord. ²⁰ For I will go, as you have commanded me, and I will reprove the people who are now living, but who will warn those who will be born hereafter? For the world lies in darkness, and its inhabitants are without light.^{(A) 21} For your law has been burned, so no one knows the things that have been done or will be done by you.^{(B) 22} If then I have found favor with you, send the holy spirit into me, and I will write everything that has happened in the world from the beginning, the things that were written in your law, so that people may be able to find the path and that those who want to live in the last days may do so.”^(C)

²³ He answered me and said, “Go and gather the people, and tell them not to seek you for forty days.^{(D) 24} But prepare for yourself many writing tablets, and take with you Sarea, Dabria, Selemia, Ethanus, and Asiel—these five, who are trained to write rapidly,^{(E) 25} and you shall come here, and I will light in your heart the lamp of understanding, which shall not be put out until what you are about to write is finished.^{(F) 26} And when you have finished, some things you shall make public, and some you shall deliver in secret to the wise; tomorrow at this hour you shall begin to write.”^(G)