Esdras is sent to expostulate with the vngratful Iewes for neglecting
Gods manie great benefites.
THE second book of Esdras the prophet, the sonne of Sarei, the sonne of Azarei, the sonne of Helcias, the sonne of Sadanias, the sonne of Sadoch, the sonne of Achitob, (1 Esd 7:1) 2 the sonne of Achias, the sonne of Phinees, the sonne of Heli, the sonne of Amerias, the sonne of Asiel, the sonne of Marimoth, the sonne of Arna, the sonne of Ozias, the sonne of Borith, the sonne of Abisei, the sonne of Phinees, the sonne of Eleazar, 3 the sonne of Aaron of the tribe of Leui; who was captiue in the countrie of the Medes, in the reigne of Artaxerxes king of the Persians. 4 And the word of our Lord came to me, saying: 5 Goe, and tel my people their wicked deedes, and their children the iniquities, that they haue done against me, that they may tel their childrens children: 6 because the sinnes of their parentes are increased in them, for they being forgetful of me haue sacrified to strange goddes. 7 Did not I bring them out of the land of AEgypt from the house of bondage? But they haue prouoked me, & haue despised my counsels. 8 But doe thou shake of the heare of thy head, and throw al euils vpon them: because they haue not obeyed my law. And it is a people without discipline. 9 How long shal I beare with them, on whom I haue bestowed so great benefiates? 10 I haue ouer throwen manie kinges from them. I haue stroke Pharao with his seruantes, and al his hoste. (Ex 14) 11 Al nations did I destroy before their face, & in the East I dissipated the peoples of two prouinces Tyre and Sidon, and I slew al their aduersaries. 12 But speake thou to them, saying: Thus sayth our Lord: 13 I made you passe through the sea, and gaue you fensed streates from the beginning. I gaue you Moyses for your gouernour, and Aaron for the Priest: 14 I gaue you light by the piller of fire, & did manie meruelous things among you: but you haue forgotten me, sayth our Lord. (Ex 13) 15 Thus sayth our Lord omnipotent: The quayle was a signe to you, I gaue you a campe for defense, and there you murmured: 16 And you triumphed not in my name for the destruction of your enemies, but yet vntil now you haue murmured. (Ex 16) 17 Where are the benefites, that I haue geuen you? Did you not crie out to me when you were hungrie in the desert, 18 saying: Why hast thou brought vs into this desert to kil vs? it had bene better for vs to serue the AEgyptians, then to dye in this desert. (Num 14) 19 I was sorie for your mournings, & gaue you manna to eate. You did eate bread of Angels. (Ex 16 / Wis 16:20) 20 When you thirsted did not I cleaue the rocke, & waters flowed in abundance? for the heates I couered you with the leaues of trees. 21 I deliuered vnto you fatte landes: The Chananeites, and Pherezeites, and Philistheans I threw out from your face: what shal I yet doe to you, sayth our Lord? (Isa 9:4) 22 Thus sayth our Lord omnipotent: In the desert when you were thirstie in the riuer of the Amorrheites, and blasphemeing my name, (Ex 15:25) 23 I gaue you not fire for blasphemies, but casting wood into the water, I made the riuer swete. 24 What shal I doe to thee Iacob? Thou wouldest not obey o Iuda. I wil transferre my self to other nations, and wil geue them my name, that they may keepe my ordinances. (Ex 32) 25 Because you haue forsaken me, I aslo forsake you: when you aske mercie of me, I wil not haue mercie. (Isa 1:15) 26 When you shal inuocate me, I wil not heare you. For you haue defiled your handes with bloud, and your fete are quicke to commit murders. 27 Not as though you haue forsaken me, but yourselues, sayth our Lord. 28 Thus saith our Lord omnipotent, haue not I desired you, as a father his sonnes, and a mother her daughters, and as a nurce her litle ones, 29 that you would be my people, and I your God, and to me for children, and I to you for a father? 30 So haue I gathered you, as the henne her chickenes vnder her winges. But now what shal I doe to you? I wil throw you from my face. (Matt 23:37) 31 When you shal bring me oblation, I wil turne away my face from you. (Isa 66:5) For I haue refused your festiual dayes, & newmoones, and circumcisions. 32 I sent my seruantes the prophetes to you, whom being taken you slew, and mangled their bodies, whose bloud I wil require, sayth our Lord. 33 Thus sayth our Lord omnipotent, your house is made desolate, I wil throw you away, as the winde doth stubble, 34 and your children shal not haue issue: because they haue neglected my commandment, and haue done that which is euil before me. 35 I wil deliuer your houses to a people comming, who not hearing me do beleue: to whom I haue not shewed signes, they wil do the thinges that I haue commanded. 36 The prophetes they haue not sene, and they wil be mindful of their iniquities. 37 I cal to witnes the grace of the people comming, whose litle ones reioyce with ioy, not seing me with their carnal eyes, but in spirit beleuing the thinges that I haue sayd. 38 And now brother behold what glorie: and see people comming from the east, 39 to whom I wil geue the conduction of Abraham, Isaac, and Iacob, and of Osee, and Amos, and of Ioel, and Abdias, and Ionas, and Michaeas, 40 and Naum and Habacuc, of Sophonias, Aggaeus, Zacharias, and Malachias, who also is called the Angel of our Lord. (Mal 3:1)
CHAP. II.
The Synagogue expostulateth with her children for their ingratitude; 10. shewing that they shal be forsaken, and the gentiles called.
THVS saith our Lord: I brought this people out of bondage, to whom I gaue commandment by my seruantes the Prophetes, whom they would not heare, but made my counsel frustrate. 2 Their mother that bare them, sayth to them: Goe children, because I am a wydow and forsaken. 3 I brought you vp with ioy, & haue lost you with mourning & sorow, because you haue sinned before our Lord your God, & haue done that which is euil before him. 4 But now what shal I doe to you? I am a wydow and desolote, goe my children, & aske mercie of our Lord. 5 And I cal thee o father a witnes vpon the mother of the children, that would not keepe my testament, 6 that thou geue them confusion, & their mother into spoile, that there be no generation of them. 7 Let their names be dispersed into the Gentiles, let them be destroyed out of the land: because they haue despised my sacrament. 8 Woe be to thee Assur, which hidest the wicked with thee. Thou naughtie nation, remember what I did to Sodom & Gomorrha: (Gen 19:24) 9 whose land lieth in cloddes of pitch, & heapes of ashes: so wil I make them, that haue not heard me, saith our Lord omnipotent. 10 Thus saith our Lord to Esdras: Tel my pople, that I wil geue them the kingdom of Ierusalem, which I ment to geue to Isreal. 11 And I wil take to me the glorie of them, and wil geue them eternal tabernacles, which I had prepared for them. 12 The wood of life shal be to them for an odour of oyntment, and they shal not labour, nor be wearied. 13 Goe & you shal receiue. Aske for your selues a few dayes, that they may abide. Now the kingdom is prepared for you, watch ye. 14 Cal thou heauen and earth to witnes: for I haue destroyed euil, and haue created good, because I liue sayth our Lord. 15 Mother embrace thy children, bring them vp with ioy. As a doue confirme their feete: because I haue chosen thee, sayth our Lord. 16 And I wil raise againe the dead out of their places, and out of the monumentes I wil bring them forth, because I haue knowen my name in Israel. 17 Feare not o mother of the children, because I haue chosen thee, saith our Lord. 18 I wil send thee ayde, my seruantes I saie, and Ieremie, at whose counsel I haue sanctified, and prepared for thee tweleue trees loden with diuerse fruites, 19 and as manie fountaines flowing milke and honie: and seuen huge mountaines, hauing the rose and the lilie, in the which I wil fil thy children with ioy. (Ex 15:27) 20 Iustifie thou the widow, iudge for the pupil, geue to the needie, defend the orphane, cloth the naked, 21 cure the broken & feeble, mocke not the lame, defend the maimed, and admitte the blind to the vision of my glorie. 22 The old man & the yong keepe with in thy walles: 23 where thou shalt finde the dead, committe them to the graue signing it, & I wil geue thee the first seate in my resurrection. (Tob 1:20) 24 Pause and rest my people, because thy rest shal come. 25 As a good nurce nourish thy children, confirme their feete. 26 The seruantes that I haue geuen thee, none of them shal perish. For I wil require them of thy number. 27 Be not wearied. For when the day of affliction and distresse shal come, others shal weepe, and be sad, but thou shalt be merie and plenteous. 28 The gentiles shal enuie, and shal be able to doe nothing against thee, sayth our Lord. 29 My handes shal couer thee, that thy children see not hel. 30 Be pleasant thou mother with thy children, because I wil deliuer thee sayth our Lord. 31 Remember thy children that sleepe, for I wil bring them out of the sides of the earth, & wil doe mercie with them: because I am merciful, sayth our Lord omnipotent. 32 Embrace thy children til I come, & shew them mercie: because my fountaines runne ouer, and my grace shal not faile. 33 I Esdras receiued commandment of our Lord, in mount Oreb; that I should goe to Israel: to whom when I came, they refused me, and reiected the commandement of our Lord. 34 And therfore, I say vnto you gentiles, which heare, and vnderstand, Looke for your pastor, he wil geue you the rest of eternitie: because he is at hand, that shal come in the end of the world. 35 Be ye readie for the rewardes of the kingdom, because perpetual light shal shine to you for time euerlasting. 36 Flee from the shadow of this world: receiue ye the pleasantnes of your glorie. I openly cal to witnes my sauiour. 37 Receiue the commended gift and be pleasant, geuing thankes to him that called you to the heauenlie kingdomes. 38 Arise, & stand & see the number of them that are signed in the feast of our Lord. 39 They that haue transferred them selues from the shadow of the world, haue receiued glorious garmentes of our Lord. 40 Receiue o Sion thy number, and shut vp thyne made white, which haue accomplished the law of our Lord. 41 The number of thy children, which thou didst wish is ful. Desire the powre of our Lord that thy people may be sanctified, which was called from the beginning. 42 I Esdras saw in mount Sion a great multiude, which I could not number, and they did al prayse our Lord with songes. (Apoc 7:9) 43 And in the middes of them was a young man high of stature, appearing aboue ouer them al, & he put crownes vpon euerie one of their heades, and he was more exalted. And I was astonied at the miracle. 44 Then asked I an Angel, and sayd: Who are these Lord? 45 Who answering sayd to me: These are they that haue laid of the mortal garment, and taken an immortal, and haue confessed the name of God. Now they are crowned, and receiue palmes. 46 And I sayd to the Angel: That yongman what is he, which putteth the crownes vpon them, and geueth palmes into their handes? 47 And answering he sayd to me: The same is the Sonne of God, whom they did confesse in the world: & I begane to magnifie them, that stood strongly for the name of our Lord. 48 Then sayd the Angel to me: Goe, tel my people, what maner of meruelous thinges and how great, thou hast sene of the Lord God.
CHAP. III.
The workes of God are wonderful from the beginning, 7. and men vngrateful 13. In Abraham God chose to himself a peculiar people: who neuertheles were froward, and obstinate. 23. He also chose Dauid, but stil the people were sinful: 28. the Babylonians also, by whom the are afflicted, are no lesse but rather greater sinners.
IN the thirteth yeare of the ruine of the citie I was in Babylon, and was trubled lying in my chamber, and my cogitations came vp ouer my hart: 2 because I saw the desolation of Sion, and the abundance of them that dwelt in Babylon. 3 And my spirit was tossed excedingly, and I began to speake to the highest timorous wordes, 4 and sayd: O Lord dominatour thou spakest from the beginning, when thou didst plant the earth, and that alone, and didst rule ouer the people, (Gen 1) 5 and gauest Adam a dead bodie: but that also was the worke of thy handes, & didst breath into him the spirit of life, and he was made to liue before thee: (Gen 2:7) 6 and thou broughst him into paradise, which thy right hand had planted, before the earth came. 7 And him thou didst command to loue thy way, and he transgressed it, & forth with thou didst institute death in him, and in his posteritie, and there were borne nations, and tribes, and peoples, and kindreds, wherof there is no number. 8 And euerie nation walked in their owne wil, & they did meruelous thinges before thee, and despised thy preceptes. 9 And agane in time thou broughst in the floud vpon inhabitantes of the world, and didst destroy them. (Gen 7) 10 And there was made in euery one of them, as vnto Adam to dye, so to them the floud, 11 But thou didst leaue one of them, Noe with his house and of him were al the iust. 12 And it came to passe, when they began to be multiplied, that dwelt vpon the earth, & multiplied children and peoples and manie nations: and they begane againe to doe impietie more then the former. 13 And it came to passe when they did iniquitie before thee, thou didst choose thee a man of them whose name was Abraham. 14 And thou didst loue him and to him onlie thou didst shew thy wil. (Gen 12) 15 And thou didst dispose vnto him an euerlasting testament, and toldst him that thou wouldst neuer forsake his seede. And thou gauest him Issac, and to Isaac thou gauest Iacob and Esau. 16 And Iacob thou didst seuer to thy selfe, but Esau thou didst separate. And Iacob grewe to a great multitude. 17 And it came to passe when thou didst bring forth his sede out of AEgypt, thou broughst it vpon mount Sinai. (Ex 19) 18 And thou didst bowe the heauens, and fasten the earth, and didst shake the world, and madest the depthes to tremble, and trubledst the world, 19 and thy glorie passed foure gates of fire, and of earthquake, and winde, and frost, that thou mightst geue a law to the seede of Iacob, and to the generation of Israel diligence. 20 And thou didst not take away from them a malignant hart, that thy law might bring forth fruite in them. 21 For Adam the first bearing a vicious hart transgressed and was ouercome, yea and al that were borne of him. 22 And it was made a permanent infirmitie, and the law with the hart of the people, with the wickednes of the roote, and that which is good departed, and the wicked remayned. 23 And the times passed, & the yeares were ended: and thou didst raise vp vnto thee a seruant named Dauid, 24 and spakest vnto him to build a citie of thy name, and to offer vnto thee in it frankencense, and oblations. 25 And this was done manie yeares, and they that inhabited the citie forsooke thee, 26 in al things as Adam and al his generations. For they also vsed a wicked hart. 27 And thou didst deliuer thy citie into the hands of thyne enimies. 28 Why, doe they better thinges, that inhabite Babylon? And for this shal she rule ouer Sion? (Jer 12) 29 It came to passe when I was come hither, and had sene the impieties that can not be numbred: and my soul saw manie offending this thirteth yeare, & my hart was astonied: 30 because I saw how thou bearest with their sinne, and didst spare them that did impiously, and didst destroy thine owne people, and preserue thine enimies, and didst not signifie it. 31 I nothing remember how this way should be forsaken: doth Babylon better thinges then Sion? 32 Or hath anie nation knowen thee beside Israel: or what tribes haue beleued thy testamentes as Iacob? 33 Whose reward hath not appeared, nor their labour fructified. For passing through I passed among the nations, and I saw them abound, and not mindeful of thy commandmentes. 34 Now therfore wey our iniquities in a ballance, and theirs that dwel in the world: & thy name shal not be found, but in Israel. 35 Or when haue not they sinned in thy sight, that inhabite the earth? or what nation hath so obserued thy commandmentes? 36 These certes by their names thou shalt finde to haue kept thy commandments, but the nations thou shalt not finde.
CHAP. IIII.
Mans witte and reason is not able to vnderstand the counsel and iudgement of God, 22. why his people are afflicted by wicked nations, 33. nor of times, and thinges to come.