2 Esdras 7:1-14

Revised Standard Version

Response to Ezra’s Questions

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

³ I said, “Speak, my lord.” And he said to me, “There is a sea set in a wide expanse so that it is broad^[a] and vast, ⁴ but it has an entrance set in a narrow place, so that it is like a river. ⁵ If any one, then, wishes to reach the sea, to look at it or to navigate it, how can he come to the broad part unless he passes through the narrow part? ⁶ Another example: There is a city built and set on a plain, and it is full of all good things; ⁷ but the entrance to it is narrow and set in a precipitous place, so that there is fire on the right hand and deep water on the left; ⁸ and there is only one path lying between them, that is, between the fire and the water, so that only one man can walk upon that path. ⁹ If now that city is given to a man for an inheritance, how will the heir receive his inheritance unless he passes through the danger set before him?”

¹⁰ I said, “He cannot, lord.” And he said to me, “So also is Israel’s portion. ¹¹ For I made the world for their sake, and when Adam transgressed my statutes, what had been made was judged. ¹² And so the entrances of this world were made narrow and sorrowful and toilsome; they are few and evil, full of dangers and involved in great hardships. ¹³ But the entrances of the greater world are broad and safe, and really yield the fruit of immortality. ¹⁴ Therefore unless the living pass through the difficult and vain experiences, they can never receive those things that have been reserved for them.