2 Esdras 5:31-40

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Response to Ezra’s Complaints

³¹ When I had spoken these words, the angel who had come to me on a previous night was sent to me.^{(A) 32} He said to me, “Listen to me, and I will instruct you; pay attention to me, and I will tell you more.”

³³ Then I said, “Speak, my lord.” And he said to me, “Are you greatly disturbed in mind over Israel? Or do you love him more than his Maker does?”^(B)

³⁴ I said, “No, my lord, but because of my grief I have spoken, for every hour I suffer agonies of heart while I strive to understand the way of the Most High and to search out some part of his judgment.”^(C)

³⁵ He said to me, “You cannot.” And I said, “Why not, my lord? Why, then, was I born? Or why did not my mother’s womb become my grave, so that I would not see the travail of Jacob and the exhaustion of the people of Israel?”^(D)

³⁶ He said to me, “Count up for me those who have not yet come, and gather for me the scattered raindrops, and make the withered flowers bloom again for me;^{(E) 37} open for me the closed chambers, and bring out for me the winds shut up in them, or show me the picture of a voice, and then I will explain to you the travail that you ask to see.”^(F)

³⁸ I said, “O sovereign Lord, who is able to know these things except him whose dwelling is not with mortals?^{(G) 39} As for me, I am without wisdom, and how can I speak concerning the things that you have asked me?”^(H)

⁴⁰ He said to me, “Just as you cannot do one of the things that were mentioned, so you cannot discover my judgment or the goal of the love that I have promised to my people.”^(I)