2 Esdras 13:15-24

Common English Bible

¹⁵ Now show me also the interpretation of this dream. ¹⁶ As I turn it over in my mind, I think: How terrible it will be for those who will be left in those days, and how much worse for those who aren’t left! ¹⁷ Those who aren’t left will be full of sorrow, ¹⁸ since they now know what lies in store for the last days, but they won’t live to see them. But how terrible it will be also for those who are left, ¹⁹ for that very reason! They will see great dangers, and there will be many kinds of distress, as these dreams show. ²⁰ Yet it is better^[a] to encounter these things, even incurring danger, than to pass from the world like a cloud and not see what happens at the end.”

²¹ He answered me, “I will tell you the interpretation of the dream as well, and I will explain to you the things you spoke about. ²² As to what you said about those who are left, this is the interpretation: ²³ He who brings the danger at that time will himself guard those who fall into danger, who have works and faith in the most mighty one. ²⁴ Know, therefore, that those who are left enjoy greater privilege than those who have died.