Lamentation of Ezra, with Response

⁶² I replied and said, “O earth, what have you brought forth, if the mind is made out of the dust like the other created things! ⁶³ For it would have been better if the dust itself had not been born, so that the mind might not have been made from it. ⁶⁴ But now the mind grows with us, and therefore we are tormented, because we perish and know it. ⁶⁵ Let the human race lament, but let the beasts of the field be glad; let all who have been born lament, but let the four-footed beasts and the flocks rejoice! ⁶⁶ For it is much better with them than with us; for they do not look for a judgment, nor do they know of any torment or salvation promised to them after death. ⁶⁷ For what does it profit us that we shall be preserved alive but cruelly tormented? ⁶⁸ For all who have been born are involved in iniquities, and are full of sins and burdened with transgressions. ⁶⁹ And if we were not to come into judgment after death, perhaps it would have been better for us.”

⁷⁰ He answered me and said, “When the Most High made the world and Adam and all who have come from him, he first prepared the judgment and the things that pertain to the judgment. ⁷¹ And now understand from your own words, for you have said that the mind grows with us. ⁷² For this reason, therefore, those who dwell on earth shall be tormented, because though they had understanding they committed iniquity, and though they received the commandments they did not keep them, and though they obtained the law they dealt unfaithfully with what they received. ⁷³ What, then, will they have to say in the judgment, or how will they answer in the last times? ⁷⁴ For how long the time is that the Most High has been patient with those who inhabit the world, and not for their sake, but because of the times which he has foreordained!”

³² And the earth shall give up those who are asleep in it, and the dust those who dwell silently in it; and the chambers shall give up the souls which have been committed to them. ³³ And the Most High shall be revealed upon the seat of judgment, and compassion shall pass away, and patience shall be withdrawn;^{[a] 34} but only judgment shall remain, truth shall stand, and faithfulness shall grow strong. ³⁵ And recompense shall follow, and the reward shall be manifested; righteous deeds shall awake, and unrighteous deeds shall not sleep.^{[b] 36} Then the pit^[c] of torment shall appear, and opposite it shall be the place of rest; and the furnace of hell^[d] shall be disclosed, and opposite it the paradise of delight. ³⁷ Then the Most High will say to the nations that have been raised from the dead, ‘Look now, and understand whom you have denied, whom you have not served, whose commandments you have despised! ³⁸ Look on this side and on that; here are delight and rest, and there are fire and torments!’ Thus he will^[e] speak to them on the day of judgment—

Only a Few Will Be Saved

⁴⁵ I answered and said, “O sovereign Lord, I said then and I say now:^[a] Blessed are those who are alive and keep thy commandments! ⁴⁶ But what of those for whom I prayed? For who among the living is there that has not sinned, or who among men that has not transgressed thy covenant? ⁴⁷ And now I see that the world to come will bring delight to few, but torments to many.

⁷⁹ And if it is one of those who have shown scorn and have not kept the way of the Most High, and who have despised his law, and who have hated those who fear God— ⁸⁰ such spirits shall not enter into habitations, but shall immediately wander about in torments, ever grieving and sad, in seven ways. ⁸¹ The first way, because they have scorned the law of the Most High.