Chapter Ten

The wife’s account of the sudden death of her son during the marriage and her sorrow (1–4). Ezra’s rebuke of the wife for forgetting the public disaster because of family grief (5–24). The sudden disappearance of the wife and the appearance in her place of a fortified city (25–27). Ezra’s prayer for the interpretation of the vision (28–37). The angel’s explanation of the vision in application to Jerusalem in different periods of its existence (38–57). The promise of a new revelation (58–60).

2 Esdras 10:1. But when my son entered his wedding chamber, he fell and died. 2 Esdras 10:2. And we all overturned the lamps, and all my fellow citizens rose up to comfort me, and I rested until the next night. 2 Esdras 10:3. And when all ceased to comfort me, to leave me in peace, I rose in the night, ran away, and came, as you see, to this field. 2 Esdras 10:4. And I think no longer to return to the city, but to remain here, neither eat nor drink, but lament and fast continuously, until I die. 1–4. Lamps on the East were the usual belongings of a wedding feast, as it took place at night (Matt 25:7). With great sorrow there is no place for tears and weeping. The mother, having lost her son, was frozen with grief and spent whole days in this state. Volkmar tries to interpret all the details in the wife’s account in application to the first and second destruction of Jerusalem. The son’s death is a symbol of the first capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. The darkness into which the house where the feast took place is plunged indicates the time of the Babylonian captivity. The woman’s comforting under the influence of neighbors’ consolations hints at the construction of the second temple through the work of Ezra and Nehemiah. After this, a whole period passes embracing the apocalyptic days, night, and day. Finally, the night of the new destruction comes. Citizens no longer try to comfort the woman. This is a hint at the extreme despair of the Jews at the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, which did not allow them even to dream of the restoration of the holy city. Volkmar’s explanation suffers from extreme artificiality. A series of details left by the author without interpretation was taken by the author from a ready-made story, which may have existed in written form.

2 Esdras 10:5. Abandoning the meditations in which I was engaged, I answered her angrily and said: 2 Esdras 10:6. O most foolish of all women! Do you not see our sorrow and what has happened to us, — 2 Esdras 10:7. that Zion, our mother, grieves immensely, is greatly humiliated, and weeps bitterly? 2 Esdras 10:8. And now, when we all grieve and are afflicted, because we are all distressed, will you grieve for one son of yours? 7–8. The woman’s sorrow over family grief should give way to the background in the face of the destruction of Jerusalem and be replaced by an even more burning sorrow at the occasion of a national disaster.

2 Esdras 10:9. Ask the earth, and it will tell you that it should bewail the fall of so many born upon it; 2 Esdras 10:10. for all born from it from the beginning and others that are yet to come, almost all perish, and such a multitude of them is delivered to destruction. 9–10. Earth is the common mother, as all people came forth from her. She has much more reason for sorrow, as the majority of people perished because of an evil heart that drove them to sin.

2 Esdras 10:11. So who should grieve more than the one who lost such a multitude, and not you, grieving for one? 2 Esdras 10:12. If you say to me: “My weeping is not like the weeping of the earth, for I lost the fruit of my womb, which I bore with sorrow and gave birth to with pain; 2 Esdras 10:13. and the earth — by the nature of the earth; upon it a great multitude as it departs, so also comes in”: 2 Esdras 10:14. and I say to you, that as you bore a son with difficulty, so the earth gives forth its fruit to the one who created it from the beginning. 14. “As you gave birth to a son with sorrow, so the earth gave its Creator (ei qui fecit eam) its fruit — mankind (fructum suum hominem).”

2 Esdras 10:15. Therefore refrain now from your sorrow and bear courageously the loss that has happened to you. 2 Esdras 10:16. For if you acknowledge God’s judgment as righteous, then in due time you will receive your son, and you will be glorified among women. 16. It is difficult to say whether the text here speaks of the resurrection of the son, or simply foretells the birth of a new son, because of which she will be surrounded by former glory.

2 Esdras 10:17. Therefore return to the city to your husband. 2 Esdras 10:18. But she said: I will not do so, I will not return to the city, but I will die here. 2 Esdras 10:19. Continuing to speak with her, I said: 2 Esdras 10:20. Do not do this, but listen to my counsel. For how many disasters afflict Zion? Be comforted for the sorrow of Jerusalem. 2 Esdras 10:21. For you see that our sanctuary is laid waste, our altar is overthrown, our temple is destroyed, 2 Esdras 10:22. our psaltery is brought low, our songs have ceased, our joy has vanished, the light of our lamp is extinguished, the ark of our covenant is seized, our sanctuary is defiled, and the name that is called upon us is nearly profaned, our children have suffered shame, our priests are slain, our Levites have been taken captive, our virgins are defiled, our wives have suffered violence, our righteous have been carried away, our youths have perished, our strong men have grown weary; 2 Esdras 10:23. and what is most grievous, the standard of Zion has been deprived of its glory, because it has been delivered into the hands of those who hate us. 21–23. The burning sorrow that is felt behind the words of the author inclines one to see in them the echo of the second destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, a witness of which the author was. The name of Israel was called upon on Israel. As is known, the name of Israel was given by God himself to Jacob and his descendants (Gen 32:28). In the Latin instead of the standard, there is discourse about the seal (signaculum) of Zion, from which former glory has been taken away and which is in the hands of pagans. Here the state seal is destroyed, as a symbol of the independence of Jerusalem. The transfer of a ring with a state seal meant the transfer of power to a new possessor (Gen 41:42; Esth 3:10; 1 Macc 6:15). Hilgenfeld unfairly puts forward this detail as proof that Jerusalem and the temple continued to exist during the writing of the book and merely came under the power of Rome. Since above it is clearly stated about the destruction of the city, the burning of the temple, and the scattering of the Jews, there is not sufficient reason to prefer this general remark to a detailed picture of destruction. In the mention of the ark of the covenant one cannot see proof that the author means here the first destruction of Jerusalem (Merx. Protestantische Kirchenzeitung, 1863, № 37. S. 826–827. Hilgenfeld. Messias Judaeorum, 80). True, in the second temple there was no ark of the covenant. However, the secondary position, which the ark of the covenant is given among other possessions of the temple, testifies to the fact that the author is not at all connected with it that central significance which it occupied in ancient Jewish worship before the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar.

2 Esdras 10:24. Therefore lay aside your great sorrow, and put off the multitude of sorrows, that the Mighty One may have mercy on you, and the Most High may grant you rest and relief of troubles. 2 Esdras 10:25. At these words of mine to her, suddenly her face shone and her appearance became bright, so that I, terrified by her, considered what this might be. 25. Rev 21:9-22:5.

2 Esdras 10:26. And behold, she suddenly uttered so loud and terrible a sound that the earth was shaken by the sound. 2 Esdras 10:27. And I saw, and behold, the woman no longer appeared to me, but a city was being built, and the place of it appeared to me on broad foundations, and I was terrified and cried out loudly and said: 27. In the Eastern translations the discourse is about a city already created, built with buildings (civitas aedificata). The heavenly Jerusalem is transferred to the earth in a completely finished form (XII:44), without human involvement.

2 Esdras 10:28. Where is the angel Uriel, who came to me at the beginning? For he has brought me into such a frenzy of mind, in which the goal of my striving has disappeared, and my prayer has turned into reproach. 2 Esdras 10:29. While I spoke this, he came to me; 2 Esdras 10:30. and he saw me, and behold, I lay as one dead and in an unconscious state; he took me by the right hand, strengthened me, stood me up, and said to me: 28–30. The author wanted to know the future fate of Israel (IX:29–37). Instead of an answer, he beholds a vision which his limited human reason is unable to fathom. Thus all his prayers turn out to be vain, as the vision does not achieve its goal, but only plunges the prophet into even greater horror before the unknown fate awaiting the Jewish people. He falls to the earth as one dead, and consciousness abandons him. Then begin the painful efforts to comprehend the meaning of what has occurred.

2 Esdras 10:31. What is wrong with you? Why are you disturbed in mind and troubled in heart? Why are you troubled? 2 Esdras 10:32. For this reason, I answered him, that you abandoned me, and I, proceeding according to your words, went out into the field, and behold I saw and still see that which I cannot relate. 2 Esdras 10:33. And he said to me: Stand strong, and I will explain to you. 2 Esdras 10:34. Speak to me, my lord, I said, only do not abandon me, that I may not die in vain; 2 Esdras 10:35. For I have seen what I did not know, and heard what I do not understand. 2 Esdras 10:36. Does my senses deceive me, or is my soul dreaming in sleep? 2 Esdras 10:37. Therefore I ask you to explain to me, your servant, this turmoil of my mind. When I answered him, he said: 2 Esdras 10:38. Attend to me, and I will teach you and explain to you what has terrified you; for the Most High will reveal to you many secrets. 2 Esdras 10:39. He sees your upright path, that you grieve continually for your people and sorrow greatly for Zion. 2 Esdras 10:40. This is the meaning of the vision that appeared to you before: 2 Esdras 10:41. the woman whom you saw weeping and whom you tried to comfort, 2 Esdras 10:42. who then became invisible, and there appeared to you a city being built, 2 Esdras 10:43. and who told you about the death of her son, this is what it means: 2 Esdras 10:44. the woman whom you saw is Zion. And what she said to you, whom you saw as a city just now being built, 2 Esdras 10:45. that she was barren for thirty years, this indicates that for thirty years no sacrifice was offered on Zion. 45. In the printed text of the Vulgate the period during which sacrifice was not offered on Zion is determined as 30 years. Wieseler (285–286) accepts this reading, noting the mystical significance given to this number elsewhere in the book (III:1). In his view the author has in mind the years from the capture of Jerusalem from the Jebusites by David to the founding of Solomon’s temple. Jerusalem became the city of God only under David. However, the apparent attempt here to draw a complete parallel between the years of barrenness of women and the time when Zion remained without offerings makes it impossible to accept this reading as original. It was only an unsuccessful attempt to put meaning into an obscure expression of the ancient Latin text: “three years by the century” (anni seculo tres). In the Eastern translations it speaks of 3,000 years. It is possible that the Latin translator connected with the word “century” the thought simply of an extensive period of time, just as he uses it to denote the present and future life. “Three days” is used in apocalyptic literature in a mystical sense. Van der Ulis, Gfrorer (II, 73), and Lucke (175–176), in order to reconcile the Latin text with the Eastern translations, combine the present reading of the Vulgate with the reading of manuscripts and assume that the author speaks of 30 centuries (anni seculo triginta). Most researchers incline in favor of the Eastern translations, seeing here an indication of the number of years that passed from the creation of the world to the building of Solomon’s temple (Gutschmid, Hilgenfeld, Volkmar, Wellhausen, Gunkel). Since the number indicated by the author does not agree with the reckoning of either the Greek Bible, where it is determined as 4,227 years, or the Hebrew, where it is reduced to 3,146 years, we must assume that the author followed the chronological system of Flavius and the Christian chroniclers. Flavius counts from the creation of the world to the flood 1,656 years, from the flood to Abraham 365, from Abraham to the exodus from Egypt 430, and from Moses to the building of the temple 592 years. Thus from the creation of the world to the building of the first temple 3,043 years elapsed. If we assume that the author reckons the time of the Egyptian captivity, based on the book of Genesis (XV:13; see 3 Ezra VII:28), as 400 years, then the entire number is reduced to 3,013 years.

2 Esdras 10:46. After thirty years of barrenness the barren woman bore a son: this happened when Solomon built the city and offered sacrifices. 46. The building of Jerusalem and the temple is attributed to Solomon. This error is explained by the fact that in the author’s mind the city of God was inseparable from the temple. Only the building of the temple, which was built by Solomon, gave Jerusalem the significance of a permanent political and religious center for Palestine. In this sense Solomon could be called the founder of Jerusalem. In his peaceful reign the city was adorned with rich buildings and far surpassed in its splendor the fortress taken by David from the Jebusites.

2 Esdras 10:47. And what she said to you, that with difficulty she raised him, this was the dwelling in Jerusalem. 47. The raising of her son, which cost the mother much labor, is compared with the life that surged in Jerusalem before its fall. The difficulties associated with its existence are explained, on the one hand, by the frequent instances of the people turning to idolatry, and on the other hand, by attacks of enemies and internal disturbances, which more than once threatened the further existence of the city.

2 Esdras 10:48. And that her son, as she said to you, entering into his chamber, fell and died, this was the fall of Jerusalem. 2 Esdras 10:49. And behold, you saw her image, and as she grieved over her son, you tried to comfort her in what had happened: it should be revealed to you concerning this. 2 Esdras 10:50. And now the Most High, seeing that you grieve in soul and are troubled with all your heart for him, has shown you the brightness of his glory and the beauty of him. 2 Esdras 10:51. For this reason I commanded you to live in the field, where there is no house. 2 Esdras 10:52. I knew that the Most High would show you this; 2 Esdras 10:53. for this reason I commanded that you come to the field, where no foundation of a building was laid. 2 Esdras 10:54. For the work of human building could not exist there, where the city of the Most High was beginning to be revealed. 51–54. The teaching about the heavenly Jerusalem, descending to the earth without human participation, appeared in Judaism after its second destruction (Gfrorer, I, 74–75). Seeing here the Jerusalem built by the labors of Ezra and Nehemiah (Shavrov, 113) is prevented by the conviction that reigned among the Jews that the second Jerusalem was only a weak shadow of the first.

2 Esdras 10:55. Therefore do not fear, and let your heart not be frightened, but enter and see the brightness and greatness of the building, as much as your eyes are able to see. 2 Esdras 10:56. After that you will hear, as much as your ears are able to hear. 55–56. The dazzling picture of the heavenly Jerusalem opening before the eyes of Ezra so far exceeds the limits of human perception that he can account for only a known part of what he has seen and heard. The rest remains inaccessible to him (cf. 2 Cor 12:4; 1 Cor 2:9).

2 Esdras 10:57. You are more blessed than many, and called to the Most High, as few are. 2 Esdras 10:58. Tomorrow night remain here, 2 Esdras 10:59. and the Most High will show you visions of the greatest deeds which He will accomplish for the inhabitants of the earth in the last days. 2 Esdras 10:60. And I slept that night and the following, as he commanded me.