2 Esdras 4:1–52

¹ The angel who was sent to me, whose name was Uriel, gave me an answer, (WEB) 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?” (WEB) 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. (WEB) 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.” (WEB) ⁵ I said, “Say on, my Lord.” Then said he to me, “Go, weigh for me the weight of a fire, or measure for me a blast of wind, or call back for me the day that is past.” (WEB) 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?” (WEB) 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?’ (WEB) 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.’ (WEB) 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 you have given me no answer about them. ” (WEB) ¹⁰ He said moreover to me, “You can’t understand your own things that you grew up with. (WEB) 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 (WEB) 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.” (WEB) ¹³ He answered me, and said, “A forest of the trees of the field went out, and took counsel together, (WEB) 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.’ (WEB) 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.’ (WEB) ¹⁶ The counsel of the wood was in vain, for the fire came and consumed it. (WEB) ¹⁷ Likewise also the counsel of the waves of the sea, for the sand stood up and stopped them. (WEB) ¹⁸ If you were judge now between these two, which would you justify, or which would you condemn?” (WEB) 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.” (WEB) ²⁰ … (WEB)