2 Esdras 1:24-40
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Israel’s Disobedience and Rejection
24 “What shall I do to you, O Jacob? You, Judah, would not obey me. I will turn to other nations and will give them my name, so that they may keep my statutes.(A) 25 Because you have forsaken me, I also will forsake you. When you beg mercy of me, I will show you no mercy.(B) 26 When you call to me, I will not listen to you, for you have defiled your hands with blood, and your feet are swift to commit murder.(C) 27 It is not as though you had forsaken me; you have forsaken yourselves, says the Lord.
28 “Thus says the Lord Almighty: Have I not entreated you as a father entreats his sons or a mother her daughters or a nurse her children, 29 so that you should be my people and I should be your God and that you should be my children and I should be your father?(D) 30 I gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But now, what shall I do to you? I will cast you out from my presence.(E) 31 When you offer oblations to me, I will turn my face from you, for I have rejected your[a] festal days and new moons and circumcisions of the flesh.[b](F) 32 I sent you my servants the prophets, but you have taken and killed them and torn their bodies[c] in pieces; I will require their blood of you, says the Lord.(G)
33 “Thus says the Lord Almighty: Your house is desolate; I will drive you out as the wind drives straw,(H) 34 and your sons will have no children, because with you[d] they have neglected my commandment and have done what is evil in my sight.(I) 35 I will give your houses to a people that will come, who without having heard me will believe. Those to whom I have shown no signs will do what I have commanded.(J) 36 They have seen no prophets, yet will recall their former state.[e] 37 I call to witness the gratitude of the people that is to come, whose children rejoice with gladness;[f] though they do not see me with bodily eyes, yet with the spirit they will believe the things I have said.(K)
38 “And now, father,[g] look with pride and see the people coming from the east;(L) 39 to them I will give as leaders Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Hosea and Amos and Micah and Joel and Obadiah and Jonah(M) 40 and Nahum and Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, who is also called the messenger of the Lord.[h]
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 1.31 Other ancient authorities read I did not command for you
- 1.31 Other ancient authorities lack of the flesh
- 1.32 Other ancient authorities read the bodies of the apostles
- 1.34 Other ancient authorities lack with you
- 1.36 Other ancient authorities read their iniquities
- 1.37 Other ancient authorities read The apostles bear witness to the coming people with joy
- 1.38 Other ancient authorities read brother
- 1.40 Other ancient authorities read and Jacob, Elijah and Enoch, Zechariah and Hosea, Amos, Joel, Micah, Obadiah, Zephaniah,
Nahum, Jonah, Mattia (or Mattathias), Habakkuk, and twelve angels with flowers
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.