2 Esdras 14:27-36

Common English Bible

²⁷ I did as he commanded me. I gathered all the people and said, ²⁸ “Hear these words, Israel. ²⁹ At first our fathers lived as strangers in Egypt, and they were liberated from there. ³⁰ They received the Law of life, but they didn’t keep it, and you also transgressed after them. ³¹ You were given land by allotment in the region of Zion. You and your fathers did evil and didn’t keep the ways that the Most High had commanded you. ³² Since he is a just judge, in time he took away from you what he granted. ³³ Now you are here, and your relatives live even farther away.^{[a] 34} If then you will rule your mind and instruct your heart, you will be kept alive, and after death you will attain mercy. ³⁵ Judgment comes after death, when we are restored to life, and then the names of the just will appear and the deeds of the wicked will be exposed. ³⁶ But let no one approach me now or come looking for me for forty days.”