2 Esdras 7:1-16

Common English Bible

7 When I finished speaking these words, the angel who had been sent to me on the previous nights was sent to me again. ² He said to me, “Rise, Ezra, and hear the words I have come to speak to you.”

³ I said, “Speak, my Lord.”

He said to me: “A certain sea is set in a spacious place so that it can be deep and vast, ⁴ but its entrance is set in a narrow place, like a river. ⁵ If anyone wants to go to the sea to see it or to rule over it, how can he come into the broad place unless he passes through the narrow? ⁶ Another instance: A city is built and positioned on a broad plain, full of all good things. ⁷ Its entrance, however, is narrow and located on a precipice so that there is fire on the right and deep water on the left. ⁸ There is a single path located between them, between the fire and the water, and the path has only room for human footprints. ⁹ If that city is given to someone as an inheritance, if the heir doesn’t pass through the danger, how will the heir receive the inheritance?”

¹⁰ I said, “Indeed, Lord.”

He said to me: “So also is Israel’s portion. I indeed made the world on account of them. ¹¹ When Adam transgressed my ordinances, what had been made was judged, ¹² and the entrances of this world were made narrow, sorrowful, and troublesome. They are few and bad, full of dangers and involving people in great hardships. ¹³ The entrances of the greater world, however, are spacious and secure, and they generate the fruit of immortality. ¹⁴ If those who live don’t enter these narrow and empty places, they can’t receive the things that are in store. ¹⁵ Therefore, why are you disturbed, being corruptible, and why are you upset, being mortal? ¹⁶ Why haven’t you focused your mind on what is still to come, rather than on what is present?”