The Lord Commissions Ezra

14 On the third day, while I was sitting under an oak, behold, a voice came out of a bush opposite me and said, “Ezra, Ezra.” ² And I said, “Here I am, Lord,” and I rose to my feet. ³ Then he said to me, “I revealed myself in a bush and spoke to Moses, when my people were in bondage in Egypt; ⁴ and I sent him and led^[a] my people out of Egypt; and I led him up on Mount Sinai, where I kept him with me many days; ⁵ and I told him many wondrous things, and showed him the secrets of the times and declared to him^[b] the end of the times. Then I commanded him, saying, ⁶ ‘These words you shall publish openly, and these you shall keep secret.’

⁴² And the Most High gave understanding to the five men, and by turns they wrote what was dictated, in characters which they did not know.^[a] They sat forty days, and wrote during the daytime, and ate their bread at night. ⁴³ As for me, I spoke in the daytime and was not silent at night. ⁴⁴ So during the forty days ninety-four^[b] books were written. ⁴⁵ And when the forty days were ended, the Most High spoke to me, saying, “Make public the twenty-four^[c] books that you wrote first and let the worthy and the unworthy read them; ⁴⁶ but keep the seventy that were written last, in order to give them to the wise among your people. ⁴⁷ For in them is the spring of understanding, the fountain of wisdom, and the river of knowledge.”

Humility