It came to pass that when you led his descendants out of Egypt, you brought them up to Mount Sinai. 18 You bowed the heavens also, shook the earth, moved the whole world, made the depths tremble, and troubled the age. 19 Your glory went through four gates, of fire, of earthquake, of wind, and of ice, that you might give the law to the descendants of Jacob, and the commandment to the descendants of Israel.
20 “Yet you didn’t take away from them their wicked heart, that your law might produce fruit in them. 21 For the first Adam, burdened with a wicked heart transgressed and was overcome, as were all who are descended from him. 22 Thus disease was made permanent. The law was in the heart of the people along with the wickedness of the root. So the good departed away and that which was wicked remained. 23 So the times passed away, and the years were brought to an end. Then you raised up a servant, called David, 24 whom you commanded to build a city to your name, and to offer burnt offerings to you in it from what is yours. 25 When this was done many years, then those who inhabited the city did evil, 26 in all things doing as Adam and all his generations had done, for they also had a wicked heart. 27 So you gave your city over into the hands of your enemies.
28 “Then I said in my heart, ‘Are their deeds of those who inhabit Babylon any better? Is that why it gained dominion over Zion?’ 29 For it came to pass when I came here, that I also saw impieties without number, and my soul saw many sinners in this thirtieth year, so that my heart failed me. 30 For I have seen how you endure them sinning, and have spared those who act ungodly, and have destroyed your people, and have preserved your enemies; 31 and you have not shown how your way may be comprehended. Are the deeds of Babylon better than those of Zion? 32 Or is there any other nation that knows you beside Israel? Or what tribes have so believed your covenants as these tribes of Jacob? 33 Yet their reward doesn’t appear, and their labour has no fruit, for I have gone here and there through the nations, and I see that they abound in wealth, and don’t think about your commandments. 34 Weigh therefore our iniquities now in the balance, and theirs also who dwell in the world, and so will it be found which way the scale inclines. 35 Or when was it that they who dwell on the earth have not sinned in your sight? Or what nation has kept your commandments so well? 36 You will find some men by name who have kept your precepts, but you won’t find nations.”
4
1 The angel who was sent to me, whose name was Uriel, gave me an answer, 2 and said to me, “Your understanding has utterly failed you regarding this world. Do you think you can comprehend the way of the Most High?”
3 Then I said, “Yes, my Lord.”
He answered me, “I have been sent to show you three ways, and to set before you three problems. 4 If you can solve one for me, I also will show you the way that you desire to see, and I will teach you why the heart is wicked.”
5 I said, “Say on, my Lord.”
Then said he to me, “Go, weigh for me the weight of fire, or measure for me blast of wind, or call back for me the day that is past.”
6 Then answered I and said, “Who of the sons of men is able to do this, that you should ask me about such things?”
7 He said to me, “If I had asked you, ‘How many dwellings are there in the heart of the sea? Or how many springs are there at the fountain head of the deep? Or how many streams are above the firmament? Or which are the exits †of hell? Or which are the entrances of paradise?’ 8 perhaps you would say to me, ‘I never went down into the deep, or as yet into hell, neither did I ever climb up into heaven.’ 9 Nevertheless now I have only asked you about the fire, wind, and the day, things which you have experienced, and from which you can’t be separated, and yet have you given me no answer about them.”
10 He said moreover to me, “You can’t understand your own things that you grew up with. 11 How then can your mind comprehend the way of the Most High? How can he who is already worn out with the corrupted world understand incorruption?”
‡When I heard these things, I fell on my face 12 and said to him, “It would have been better if we weren’t here at all, than that we should come here and live in the midst of ungodliness, and suffer, and not know why.”
13 He answered me, and said, §“A forest of the trees of the field went out, and took counsel together, 14 and said, ‘Come! Let’s go and make war against the sea, that it may depart away before us, and that we may make ourselves more forests.’ 15 The waves of the sea also in like manner took counsel together, and said, ‘Come! Let’s go up and subdue the forest of the plain, that there also we may gain more territory.’ 16 The counsel of the wood was in vain, for the fire came and consumed it. 17 Likewise also the counsel of the waves of the sea, for the sand stood up and stopped them. 18 If you were judge now between these two, which would you justify, or which would you condemn?”
19 I answered and said, “It is a foolish counsel that they both have taken, for the ground is given to the wood, and the place of the sea is given to bear its waves.”
20 Then answered he me, and said, “You have given a right judgement. Why don’t you judge your own case? 21 For just as the ground is given to the wood, and the sea to its waves, even so those who dwell upon the earth may understand nothing but what is upon the earth. Only he who dwells above the heavens understands the things that are above the height of the heavens.”
22 Then answered I and said, “I beg you, O Lord, why has the power of understanding been given to me? 23 For it was not in my mind to be curious of the ways above, but of such things as pass by us daily, because Israel is given up as a reproach to the heathen. The people whom you have loved have been given over to ungodly nations. The law of our forefathers is made of no effect, and the written covenants are nowhere regarded. 24 We pass away out of the world like locusts. Our life is like a vapour, and we aren’t worthy to obtain mercy. 25 What will he then do for his name by which we are called? I have asked about these things.”
26 Then he answered me, and said, “If you are alive you will see, and if you live long, you will marvel, for the world hastens quickly to pass away. 27 For it is not able to bear the things that are promised to the righteous in the times to come; for this world is full of sadness and infirmities. 28 For the evil† about which you asked me has been sown, but its harvest hasn’t yet come. 29 If therefore that which is sown isn’t reaped, and if the place where the evil is sown doesn’t pass away, the field where the good is sown won’t come. 30 For a grain of evil seed was sown in the heart of Adam from the beginning, and how much wickedness it has produced to this time! How much more it will yet produce until the time of threshing comes! 31 Ponder now by yourself, how much fruit of wickedness a grain of evil seed has produced. 32 When the grains which are without number are sown, how great a threshing floor they will fill!”
33 Then I answered and said, ‡“How long? When will these things come to pass? Why are our years few and evil?”
34 He answered me, and said, “Don’t hurry faster than the Most High; for your haste is§ for your own self, but he who is above hurries on behalf of many. 35 Didn’t the souls of the righteous ask question of these things in their chambers, saying, ‘How long †will we be here? When does the fruit of the threshing floor come?’ 36 To them, Jeremiel the archangel answered, ‘When the number is fulfilled of those who are like you. For he has weighed the world in the balance. 37 By measure, he has measured the times. By number, he has counted the seasons. He won’t ‡move or stir them until that measure is fulfilled.’ ”
38 Then I answered, “O sovereign Lord, all of us are full of ungodliness. 39 Perhaps it is for our sakes that the threshing time of the righteous is kept back—because of the sins of those who dwell on the earth.”
40 So he answered me, “Go your way to a woman with child, and ask of her when she has fulfilled her nine months, if her womb may keep the baby any longer within