2 Esdras 1:15-30
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
15 “Thus says the Lord Almighty:[a] The quails were a sign to you; I gave you camps for your protection, and in them you complained.(A) 16 You have not exulted in my name at the destruction of your enemies, but to this day you still complain.[b] 17 Where are the benefits that I bestowed on you? When you were hungry and thirsty in the wilderness, did you not cry out to me, 18 saying, ‘Why have you led us into this wilderness to kill us? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in this wilderness.’(B) 19 I pitied your groanings and gave you manna for food; you ate the bread of angels.(C) 20 When you were thirsty, did I not split the rock so that waters flowed in abundance? Because of the heat I clothed you with the leaves of trees.[c](D) 21 I divided fertile lands among you; I drove out the Canaanites,[d] the Perizzites, and the Philistines[e] before you. What more can I do for you? says the Lord.(E) 22 Thus says the Lord Almighty:[f] When you were in the wilderness, at the bitter stream, thirsty and blaspheming my name,(F) 23 I did not send fire on you for your blasphemies but threw a tree into the water and made the stream sweet.(G)
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.(H) 25 Because you have forsaken me, I also will forsake you. When you beg mercy of me, I will show you no mercy.(I) 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.(J) 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?(K) 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.(L)
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- 1.15 Other ancient authorities lack Almighty
- 1.16 Other ancient authorities read I sank your pursuer with his army in the sea, but still the people complain about their own destruction.
- 1.20 Other ancient authorities read I made for you trees with leaves
- 1.21 Other ancient authorities add the Hittites
- 1.21 Other ancient authorities read and their children
- 1.22 Other ancient authorities lack Almighty
2 Esdras 2:2-4
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
2 The mother who bore them says to them, ‘Go, my children, because I am a widow and forsaken.(A) 3 I brought you up with gladness, but with mourning and sorrow I have lost you, because you have sinned before the Lord God and have done what is evil in my sight.[a] 4 But now what can I do for you? For I am a widow and forsaken. Go, my children, and ask for mercy from the Lord.’(B)
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- 2.3 Other ancient authorities read in his sight
2 Esdras 8:8-12
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
8 And because you give life to the body that is now fashioned in the womb and furnish it with members, what you have created is preserved amid fire and water, and for nine months the womb[a] endures your creature that has been created in it.(A) 9 But that which keeps and that which is kept shall both be kept by your keeping. And when the womb gives up again what has been created in it, 10 you have commanded that from the members themselves (that is, from the breasts) milk, the fruit of the breasts, should be supplied, 11 so that what has been fashioned may be nourished for a time, and afterward you will still guide it in your mercy. 12 You have nurtured it in your righteousness and instructed it in your law and reproved it in your wisdom.
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- 8.8 Lat what you have formed
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.