Chapter Six

The final visitation of the world by the Creator (1–6). The boundary between the present and future age (7–10). Ezra’s prayer for the revelation to him of further signs of the end (11–12). Signs of the end (13–28). Promise of a new revelation (23–34). Third vision. A new prayer of Ezra for the resolution of doubts arising from the oppression of the chosen people by the Gentiles (35–59).

2 Esdras 6:1. And He said to me: from the beginning of the creation of the circle of the earth and before the limits of the age were established, and before the winds blew; 1. To prove his thought that God will perform the final visitation of the world himself, the author draws a complete analogy between the beginning of the world and its end. Just as in creating the world, the Creator did not resort to anyone’s help, so He will not need a mediator to perform the final judgment on people. The high poetic picture of creation portrayed here is drawn from tradition (cf. Prov 8:24-29; Ps 89:2). In the Slavonic Bible, the sense of the Latin expression exitus saeculi is exactly conveyed as “the exits of the age.” Since further the discourse concerns the winds, it is evident that by age here the sky is understood, with heavenly gates named those openings in the firmament of heaven through which winds blow and stars emerge to accomplish their appointed path. According to the representation of the ancients, each atmospheric phenomenon had a special place in heaven furnished with doors.

2 Esdras 6:2. before the voices of thunder were heard, before the lightning flashed, before the foundations of paradise were established; 2 Esdras 6:3. before the beautiful flowers appeared, before the moving powers were established, and before the innumerable hosts of Angels were assembled; 3. By beautiful flowers, according to the course of speech, are understood the flowers of paradise. According to the mythological representations of the ancients, the flowers of the heavenly garden are the stars scattered across the sky. Since in this section nothing more is said about the stars, despite the author’s attempt to give an exhaustive picture of the universe, it is evident that the flowers refer here to the heavenly lights. Instead of moving powers (motae virtutes, Vulg.) should be read: “powers of movement,” “powers governing movement” (motte virtutes, Lat. Mss.). According to Gunkel, these refer to the angelic powers (αί δυνάμεις των ουρανών, Matt 24:29) in whose jurisdiction the lights are. This view was shared by the pagan world. Sabeism saw in each star a Deity.

2 Esdras 6:4. before the heights of the air rose, before the measures of the firmament were determined, before the fires burned on Zion; 4. The discourse about the fires burning on Zion is taken from the Vulgate (antequam aestuarent camini in Sion). It represents a result of an error, for in the Eastern translations this passage speaks of the establishing of the foundations of Zion. On the basis of manuscripts, Bensly restores the text in such a way: “before Zion was appointed as a footstool” (antequam aestimaretur scabellum Sion). Zion is repeatedly called in the Old Testament a footstool (ύποπόδιον) of God (Ps 98:5; 1 Chr 28:2; Ezek 43:7; Lam 2:1). Hilgenfeld, Bissell, and Zöckler propose to read aediticaretur instead of aestimaretur, applying this passage to the settlement of Mount Zion. But the author could in no way have placed, alongside phenomena preceding the creation of the world, an event that took place many years later. “Before the present years were reckoned, and the assaults of those who now sin were rejected, and those who gather treasure of faith were sealed.”

2 Esdras 6:5. before the ages were examined, and the sinners separated, and those who kept faith sealed as a treasure: 5. Before the creation of the world, God determined with unusual precision all the stages in its development. Therefore the assaults of sinners cannot pass the boundary set for them; they will be rejected. The Apocalypse speaks of seals placed on the foreheads of God’s servants (VII:2–8).

2 Esdras 6:6. then I considered, and all things were created by me alone, and not through another; the end also shall proceed from me, and not from another. 6. Gunkel draws attention to the fact that the author speaks not of creative word, but of creative thought, and sees here evidence of a more exalted understanding of God’s creative activity. The end of the world will be similar to the beginning. As at creation God acted alone, so at the end of the world He will act himself, not resorting to anyone else. The coming of the Messiah is not excluded at all here. But for the author, it is merely one of the phenomena preceding the end of the world. The concluding moment in world history will occur apart from the Messiah.

2 Esdras 6:7. Then I answered: what division of times is there, and when will be the end of the first and the beginning of the last? 2 Esdras 6:8. From Abraham to Isaac, when from him were born Jacob and Esau, Jacob’s hand held from the beginning the heel of Esau. 2 Esdras 6:9. The end of this age is Esau, and the beginning of the following is Jacob. 2 Esdras 6:10. The hand of man is his beginning, and the end is his heel. Do not ask me about anything else, Ezra. 7–10. The boundary between the present and future age drawn here is distinguished by a half-mysterious character, only slightly lifting the veil of mystery over the last days of the world (cf. Gal 4:21-31). It is considerably softened in the Latin translation and even more so in the printed text of the Vulgate. The Angel’s discourse on the division of times in unaltered form is preserved in the Syriac text: “From Abraham to the offspring of Abraham (ab Abraham usque ad generatorionem Abrahami), for from him Jacob and Esau were born, and the hand of Jacob from the beginning held the heel of Esau. The heel of the first age is Esau, and the hand of the second is Jacob, for the beginning of man is his hand, and the end of man is his heel. Between the heel and the hand do not seek anything else, Ezra!” (Cf. Eth., Ar. 1, 2). The Arabic translation explains why the present and future age are compared with the heel and hand of man: “And behold, the heel and the hand are joined together.” In the Latin translation, the symbols of heel and hand are interpreted, resulting in the thought that Esau will be the end of the present age and Jacob the beginning of the future. The task of the author was to show that between the present and the coming age there will be no gap: the second will immediately follow the first. For this he uses three comparisons. By the first, the author, in Volkmar’s opinion (41), wishes to say that the image of the end is drawn in the early history of the chosen people. There is no break in the succession of generations. Abraham is followed by his descendant, followed by Esau and Jacob, and so on. Kabish (43–50) explains the comparison even more simply: the transition from the present age to the future will occur just as the appearance of each new generation in the chosen people occurs, without the participation of foreign blood. Zöckler (454) understands the comparison in application to the further words in the sense that the future age will follow immediately after the present, just as two grandsons of Abraham were born to Isaac while the grandfather was still alive. In the circumstances of the birth of Esau and Jacob (Gen 25:26), the author sees a complete analogy with the change of the present age by a new one. Besides historical examples, he refers to the structure of the human organism. In it is noticed a close connection between the lower extremity of man—the heel, and the hand, which in the vertical position constitutes the upper extremity of the body. In the Latin manuscripts, the Angel’s answer begins with an incomprehensible expression: “from Abraham to Abraham (ab Abraham usque ad Abraham).” It is explained by the fact that in the Greek text stood από τού Αβραάμ έπί τόν τού Αβραάμ (Volkmar) or έπί τόν τού Αβραάμ (Hilgenfeld). The Greek article was left untranslated. In the Vulgate, in accordance with the context, a correction has been made: “From Abraham to Isaac.” The sense of the concluding words of the Angel is no less obscure, where apparently there is an omission: “the hand of man between the heel and the hand; ask me not about anything else, Ezra.” Volkmar (41) and Bissell (649) understand by the hand of man the reign of Nerva, falling in the interval between neighboring descendants of the Herodian dynasty of Idumean origin and the advent of the rule of Jacob. But such an understanding is too arbitrary. Hilgenfeld (Esra und Daniel, 21. Messias Judaeorum, 134) reads membra instead of manus, but this unjustified correction only complicates the elements comprising the comparisons. Therefore, most researchers speak in favor of the authenticity of the Syriac recension. Gunkel assumes here only incorrect punctuation in the translation of the Greek phrase: μεταξύ πτέρνης καί χειρός ούδέν άλλο ώήτει Ἐζρα. The angel points out that “between the heel and the hand, there is nothing else,” that would not be part of the human organism, and calls Ezra to understanding: “understand, Ezra” (cf. Mark 13:14; Matt 24:15). By all his comparisons, the author wishes to express the thought that the new age will follow the present on its heels. The coming age is named the age of Jacob because the Messiah, a descendant of Jacob, will reign in it. In the opinion of most researchers, through the symbol of Esau, the writer of the book depicts the contemporary political situation of the Jews. Hilgenfeld (Judischs Apokalyptik 195); (Esra und Daniel. 22–23; Messias Judaeorum, 55), Gutschmid, Volkmar (41, 361–362), and Wieseler (278) see here an allusion to the Herodian dynasty of Idumean origin, which ruled Palestine. The first two researchers attribute the origin of the book to the reign of Herod the Great; the others to the reign of the last offspring of the Herodian house, Herod Agrippa. Through his sister Berenice, who was the mistress of Titus, Herod Agrippa concentrated in his person a rather extensive power over Palestine. However, the Herodian dynasty never played in the eyes of the Jews such a great world role as to be designated by the name of the earthly age. These were merely obedient servants of Rome, servilely carrying out all the desires of the Roman Caesars. Therefore, it is much more just to see in Esau or Edom the symbol of Rome, whose power at the moment of the book’s appearance seized the entire universe. This understanding is held by Eiler (Herzog. Real–Encyklopedie, 2 Aufl., K, 660), Ewald, Langen (125–126), Wellhausen (245), Gunkel (365), Schürer (320–321), and Lagrange (490). Among the rabbis, Rome was often called Edom. In blessed Jerome, there is noted the fervor with which the Jews applied all passages of the Bible about Edom to Rome: “Some of the Jews read rumah instead of dumah, wishing to apply the prophecy to the Romans because of the false belief that by the name of Idumea, the Romans are always meant” (Comment. ad Jesajam, XXI, 11–12). Such an interpretation penetrated into the New Testament literature (Origen, Tertullian, Ambrose, Gregory the Great, Augustine, Isidore of Seville, Ephrem the Syrian, and Jacob of Edessa). It should be noted that the boundary drawn by the author between the old and new age is not firm. Here, apparently, the reign of the Messiah, a descendant of Jacob, marks the beginning of the coming age. Below, in the third vision (VII:29), it is referred to the present age. The difference is explained by the fact that the author made extensive use of folk traditions, where the coming of the Messiah was regarded sometimes as the concluding moment in the development of the present age, sometimes as the beginning of the future.

2 Esdras 6:11. And I answered and said to Him: O Master Lord! if I have found favor in your sight, 2 Esdras 6:12. I ask you to show your servant the end of your signs, which you partly showed me in the night past. 2 Esdras 6:13. He answered me and said: rise on your feet, and hear a voice full of sound, 13. The sonorous voice, reminiscent of the sound of many waters (Ezek 1:24); (Rev 1:15), belongs to God. In this detail one cannot fail to notice the influence of Jewish teaching about bath–qol (daughter of voice). Postexilic Judaism taught that God’s voice in its immediate form cannot be perceived by man. It is replaced only by an echo that reaches the earth and is called the daughter of voice (Hamburger, II, 92–95 Weber. System der altsynagoglichen Theologie, 188–189).

2 Esdras 6:14. and it shall be as if an earthquake; but the place where you stand shall not be shaken. 2 Esdras 6:15. Therefore, when he speaks, do not be afraid; for concerning the end there will be a word, and the foundations of the earth shall be understood. 2 Esdras 6:16. And as the discourse is about them themselves, the earth will tremble and quake, for it knows that the end of them must be changed. 14–16. The text of the Vulgate should be corrected. “And if the place where you stand will shake greatly while He is speaking, do not be afraid.” The present reading arose from incorrect division of the words commotione commovebitur.

2 Esdras 6:17. And it was, when I heard the voice, I rose on my feet, and heard, and behold a voice speaking, and its sound was like the sound of many waters, 2 Esdras 6:18. and he said: behold, the days are coming when I shall begin to draw near to visit those who dwell on the earth, 2 Esdras 6:19. when I shall begin to require of those who have done wrong through their injustice, when the measure of the humiliation of Zion shall be filled. 2 Esdras 6:20. And when the age is marked, behold the signs which I will show: the books will open before the face of the firmament, and all will see together; 20. The age will be sealed (supersignabitur). The comparison is taken from a written document, in which the affixing of a seal constitutes the concluding act. The opening of books among other signs of the end is mentioned by the prophet Daniel (VII:10) and in the Apocalypse (V:1). Gunkel attaches to these books the same significance that the book sealed with seven seals has in the hand of Him that sits on the throne. The books visible in heaven for all announce various kinds of scourges about to fall upon mankind. Kabish understands here books in which are recorded the good and evil deeds of people. By them God will judge people at the final visitation of the world.

2 Esdras 6:21. and one-year-old infants will speak with their voices, and pregnant women will give birth to premature children in three and four months, and they will remain alive and grow strong; 21. In the previous vision, already extraordinary phenomena in the realm of childbearing were noted as harbingers of the approaching end. Women will give birth in the third or fourth month of pregnancy. Nevertheless, the children will live. Their development will proceed at rapid pace: one-year-old children will speak like adults. This anomaly depends on the fact that before the beginning of the judgment, all souls dwelling in storehouses must leave them. The rapidity of development is calculated to enable all to answer at the judgment for their free acts, not unconscious deeds.

2 Esdras 6:22. the sown fields will suddenly appear as unsown, and the full storehouses will prove empty; 2 Esdras 6:23. then a trumpet will sound with a loud noise, and when all hear it, they will suddenly be afraid. 23. The trumpet sound announces the danger threatening the world (cf. Amos 3:6; Matt 24:31; 1 Cor 15:52; 1 Thess 4:16).

2 Esdras 6:24. And it shall come to pass at that time, friends will make war one against another like enemies, and the earth will be in terror with those who dwell on it, and the springs of the fountains will stop and fail to flow for three hours. 24. Cf. V:9. Three hours represent an apocalyptic designation of the period during which evil will reign on the earth.

2 Esdras 6:25. Whoever shall remain alive after all this that I have foretold to you will himself be saved, and will see my salvation and the end of your age. 25. The blessings of the future age constitute the possession of the righteous alone. All sinners by this time will be destroyed. Only the righteous will come through all trials unharmed (VII:28; IX:8; XIII:16–24; 1 Thess 4:15).

2 Esdras 6:26. And men shall see those chosen whom I did not taste death from their birth, and the heart of those who dwell will change and turn into another sense. 26. “And they will see people who were taken up (qui recepti sunt homines) and who have not tasted death from their birth.” These refer to Enoch (Gen 5:24; Sir 44:15, Heb 11:5), Elijah (2 Kgs 2:10-11, Sir 48:9, cf. Wis 4:11), Moses, Ezra himself (3 Ezra 1:4), and other righteous persons whose advent was awaited before the end of the world. Their fervent preaching will produce a radical change in the hearts of people (cf. Mal 4:5-6).

2 Esdras 6:27. For evil shall be destroyed, and deceit shall vanish; 2 Esdras 6:28. faith will flourish, corruption shall be overcome, and truth shall appear, which has remained barren for so long. 2 Esdras 6:29. When He spoke, I looked upon the one before whom I stood. 29. The text of the Vulgate, like verse 14, requires correction. “And while He spoke with me, behold the place where I stood gradually began to shake.”

2 Esdras 6:30. And he said to me: I came to show you the time of the coming night. 30. In complete form, this verse has the following sense. “I will come (veni) to show you this in the future night. So if you again pray and again fast for seven days, then I will tell you even more during the day.” The angel has in view the third and fourth visions. Revelation granted in the daytime, in the author’s eyes, is a higher stage compared to the usual nightly visions. In the Latin text, past tense is used for the revelations about to be made, as a sign that the Angel’s words will certainly be fulfilled.

2 Esdras 6:31. So if you pray again and fast again for seven days, I will show you more on the day when I heard you. 2 Esdras 6:32. Your voice has been heard before the Most High; the Mighty has seen your righteous action, and has seen also the purity which you have kept since your youth. 32. In the Latin text, instead of righteous action, there is discourse about righteousness (directionem).

2 Esdras 6:33. Therefore He has sent me to show you all this and to tell you: trust and do not fear; 2 Esdras 6:34. do not be hasty in your thoughts about the first times, that you may not be hasty in your judgment about the times of the end. 34. In Gunkel’s opinion, a folk proverb is quoted here. Its sense is rather obscure (Et noli festinare in prioribus temporibus cogitare vana, ut non properes in novissimis temporibus). Volkmar sees here a call that the author should not thoughtlessly indulge in idle musings, similar to the present age, but at the same time not too impatiently await the new age. Gunkel supposes that the words ut non properes represent a translation of the Greek μή σπεύσης. The verb σπεύδω in the LXX is often used in the sense of “to come in fear,” “to be afraid.” The Angel warns Ezra against excessive fascination with reasonings, pointing to the possible danger of losing blessedness thereby: “Do not eagerly surrender yourself to idle thoughts that revolve around the past age, so that you do not experience fear in the last time.”

2 Esdras 6:35. After this I again prayed with tears and also fasted for seven days, to complete the three weeks that were commanded me. 35. Before this there was no discourse about whether the author was commanded to fast for three weeks. It is noted only that he fasted according to the will of the Angel seven days before the second (V:13, 20–21) and third visions (VI:35). Since three sevens of fasting were completed by the beginning of the third vision, it must be presumed that similar preparations took place before the first vision. The silence about them is explained by the fact that the author’s attention was concentrated not on the outward setting, but on the philosophical problem he attempted to resolve. Already Fabricius was struck by the similarity of this passage with the Book of the Prophet Daniel (X:2), which the author imitates in many cases. Daniel fasts three weeks before his main vision, not eating bread or meat or wine. Volkmar and Ewald recognize in these words a reference to the Book of Daniel, for in God’s commandment to Daniel, the writer of our book saw an injunction addressed to himself as well. The Bible at that time was looked upon as God’s word addressed not only to a certain person, but to each reader individually. Against such an understanding speaks the independence that the author demonstrates in relation to his model: he divides the three-week fast preceding Daniel’s vision into three fasts of one week each before each of the first three visions.

2 Esdras 6:36. And on the eighth night my heart was moved again, and I began to speak before the Most High, 2 Esdras 6:37. for my spirit was greatly kindled, and my soul was in anguish. 2 Esdras 6:38. And I said: Lord! You spoke from the beginning of creation; in the first day you said: “let there be heaven and earth,” and your word was a finished deed. 38. Cf. Gen 1:1-3. The creative word “let there be” is here referred to the beginning of heaven and earth. This word was immediately fulfilled: it produced its effect. “And your word brought (perfecit) about the deed.”

2 Esdras 6:39. Then the Spirit hovered, and darkness encompassed round about and silence; and there was no sound of human voice yet. 39. Gen 1:2. “There was no sound of human voice according to your will” (abs te). God is considered the Creator of the human voice: He guides man in naming the beasts (Gen 2:19-20)

2 Esdras 6:40. Then you commanded from your treasures to come forth abundant light, that your work might be made manifest. 40. Light exists before the creation of the world. It is part of the Divine Essence. On earth, one can see only a meager part of this light; the other constitutes the possession of that world, whose creation preceded the earth.

2 Esdras 6:41. On the second day you created the spirit of the firmament and commanded it to divide and make a separation between the waters, so that one part should rise upward and the other part remain below. 41. Ambrose identifies the spirit of the firmament with the Holy Spirit (De Spiritu Sancto, II, 7). “Ezra teaches us that the Spirit is created, saying in the third book: “And on the second day you created the spirit of the firmament.” But there are no grounds for such understanding. Earlier (39), discourse was already about the Spirit hovering at the beginning of creation. It is undoubtedly understood as the Spirit of God, the organ of Divine revelation. Postexilic Judaism was convinced that God’s command could be addressed only to a rational being. Thus arose the representation of the Spirit of the firmament, i.e., an Angel standing at the head of the celestial vault (cf. Gen 1:6).

2 Esdras 6:42. On the third day You commanded the waters to gather together on the seventh part of the earth, and You dried up the six parts in order that they might serve before You for sowing and working. 42. The teaching that the world is divided into seven parts, of which water occupies one part and the rest is dry land, was taken by the author from the cosmological beliefs of his time. It is encountered in the mythology of the Hindus and Persians. Greek mathematical scholars accept it (Clement of Rome, Recognitiones, IX, 26). According to the views of Aristotle, Seneca, and Pliny the Younger, the sea occupies a small part compared to the dry land. The division of the earth into seven parts is a characteristic feature of Judaism. According to the views of the rabbis, paradise and hell are likewise divided into the same number of parts (Gfrorer, II, 43). In connection with the view of the relationship between dry land and sea stands the mystical meaning which Philo connected with the number one and six. In his conviction, six is the first perfect number after one. According to these numbers everything is accomplished, both the measure of the dry land and the measure of the sea. Ptolemy’s theory, which taught that only the sixth part of the earth is habitable and the remaining space is covered by water, for some time displaced the previous views, but in the Middle Ages they emerged again. Roger Bacon (Opus Majus) recognizes this view as divinely revealed. Relying on the prophetic book of Ezra, Christopher Columbus argued that the ocean occupies a limited part of space (Lucke, 167–168; Volkmar, 49; Hilgenfeld Judische Apokatyptik, 229; Gunkel, 367).

2 Esdras 6:43. Your word went out, and at once the work appeared; 2 Esdras 6:44. and suddenly there appeared an immeasurable abundance of fruits and many different delights for the taste, flowers with their appearance unchanged, with fragrance inexpressibly sweet: all this was accomplished on the third day. 44. In the manuscript text, there is mention of flowers with an inimitable coloring (colore inimitabiles).

2 Esdras 6:45. On the fourth day You commanded there to be the light of the sun, the light of the moon, and the arrangement of the stars 2 Esdras 6:46. and commanded that they should serve the man who was to be created. 45–46. See Gen 1:14. The author puts forward the servant role of the stars in the first place, since he knows that the pagan world worships them as gods.

2 Esdras 6:47. On the fifth day You said to the seventh part, where the water was gathered, to bring forth living creatures, birds and fish, which it did. 2 Esdras 6:48. The mute and lifeless water, at God’s command, brought forth living creatures so that all kinds might declare Your wonderful works. 47–48. Gen 1:20-22.

2 Esdras 6:49. Then You preserved two creatures: one was called Behemoth, and the other Leviathan. 2 Esdras 6:50. And You separated them from each other, because the seventh part, where the water was gathered, could not hold them together. 2 Esdras 6:51. To Behemoth You gave one part of the dry land that had been dried on the third day, that it might dwell in it, wherein are thousands of mountains. 2 Esdras 6:52. To Leviathan You gave the seventh, the watery part, and You preserved him that he should be food for whom You will, and when You will. 49–52. In the Vulgate and the Slavonic Bible, Behemoth is erroneously named Enoch. The legend of two gigantic creatures—Behemoth and Leviathan, created by God on the fifth day—arose in Judaism as a result of misinterpreting the words of the Author of Genesis: μεγάλα (Gen 1:21). The Jerusalem Targum explains them thus: “On the fifth day God created mighty water monsters—Leviathan and his mate—which are preserved for the day of consolation.” The Wisdom of Isaiah calls them indifferently Leviathans (XXVII:1). Behemoth and Leviathan are clearly distinguished in the book of Job (XL:10; XLI:26). In all the legends that formed about Behemoth and Leviathan in the post-exilic period, there is reflected amazement at their extraordinary size and strength. Gunkel sees here an echo of ancient mythological ideas of the ocean. Originally, the water element was designated for both Behemoth and Leviathan, but since the seventh part of all the earth, occupied by water, could not contain them, God separated them from each other. Behemoth lives on land, Leviathan in the waters. Behemoth is otherwise called a wild ox, which lies on a thousand mountains (Ps 49:10). Daily it destroys all vegetation on them, but at night the grass grows again as if it had not been touched at all, according to Scripture (Job 40:15): “the mountains bring him food.” This ox is destined for the sumptuous feast of the righteous, and therefore it is said of him: “He who created him brought his sword against him” (Job 40:14). In other places of the Talmud, the sensual character of the feast awaiting the righteous in the future life is described even more sharply. The gigantic creatures created by God on the fifth day were dangerous for the existence of the world. If they had begun to multiply, they would have laid waste the entire world. For this reason, God emasculated the male and killed the female, and salted her meat for the future solemn feast by which the righteous will greet the coming of the Messiah (Laurence. Gfrorer. Prophetae Veteres Pseudepigraph, 160. Hilgenfeld. Messias Jedaeorum, 60; Judische Apokalyptik, 178, 230. Volkmar, 51, Gfrorer. Geschichte des Urchristenthus, II, 32–35. Gunkel, 368).

2 Esdras 6:53. On the sixth day You commanded the earth to bring forth before You cattle, beasts, and creeping things; 53. Gen 1:24-25.

2 Esdras 6:54. and after them You created Adam, whom You made ruler over all Your creatures, and from him all of us are descended—the people whom You have chosen. 54. Gen 1:26.

2 Esdras 6:55. All this I have said before You, O Lord, because You created this age for us. 55. 3 Esdras VI:59; VII:11; Rom 4:13. The ideals of ancient Israel did not go beyond Canaan; post-exilic Judaism already dreamed of dominion over the whole world.

2 Esdras 6:56. But concerning the other nations that descend from Adam, You have said they are nothing; they are like spittle, and You have likened the multitude of them to drops falling from a vessel. 56. The comparison of other nations to drops falling from a bucket, and of their multitude to dust on a scale, is found in the prophet Isaiah (XL:15, 17). Here this view of the pagan world is expressed only with even greater sharpness.

2 Esdras 6:57. And now, O Lord, behold, these nations, which are accounted as nothing, have begun to rule over us, and they devour us. 2 Esdras 6:58. We, Your people, whom You called Your firstborn, Your only-begotten, Your beloved, have been delivered into their hands. 58. The firstborn people of Israel is called in the Psaltery (LXXXVIII:28). The author points out, in an increasingly rising order, the advantages which Israel possesses before other nations. In the Latin text he is called also a zealot of God (aemulatorem). In Gunkel’s opinion this expression represents an inexact translation of the Greek ζηλωτός. The meaning here is about God’s relationship to His people, not the reverse. The Lord calls Himself a zealot (Exod 34:14) to denote the close bonds of love binding Him to Israel. The author of the prophetic book of Ezra notes that his native people was the object of God’s most ardent love, united with zealousness.

2 Esdras 6:59. If this age has been created for us, why do we not possess an inheritance along with the age? And how long will this be so?