King James Version · Under Rome
2 Esdras 9
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1He answered me then, and said, Measure thou the time diligently in itself: and when thou seest part of the signs past, which I have told thee before, 2Then shalt thou understand, that it is the very same time, wherein the Highest will begin to visit the world which he made. 3Therefore when there shall be seen earthquakes and uproars of the people in the world: 4Then shalt thou well understand, that spake of those things from the days that were before thee, even . 5For like as all that is made in the world hath a beginning and an end, and the end is manifest: 6Even so the times also of the Highest have plain beginnings in wonder and powerful works, and endings in effects and signs. 7And every one that shall be , and shall be able to escape by his works, and by , whereby ye have , 8Shall be preserved from the said perils, and shall see my in my land, and within my borders: for I have them for me . 9Then shall they be in pitiful case, which now have abused my ways: and they that have cast them away despitefully shall in torments. 10For such as in their life have received benefits, and have not known me; 11And they that have loathed , while they had yet , and, when as yet place of was open unto them, understood not, but despised it; 12The same must know it after by pain. 13And therefore be thou not curious how the ungodly shall be punished, and when: but enquire how shall be , whose the world is, and for whom the world is created. 14Then answered I and said, 15I have said before, and now do speak, and will speak it also hereafter, that there be many more of them which , than of them which shall be : 16Like as a wave is greater than a drop. 17And he answered me, saying, Like as the field is, so is also the ; as the flowers be, such are the colours also; such as the workman is, such also is the work; and as the husbandman is himself, so is his husbandry also: for it was the time of the world. 18And now when I prepared the world, which was not yet made, even for them to in that now live, no man spake against me. 19For then every one : but now the manners of them which are created in this world that is made are corrupted by a perpetual , and by a law which is unsearchable rid themselves. 20So I considered the world, and, behold, there was peril because of the devices that were come into it. 21And I saw, and spared it greatly, and have kept me a grape of the cluster, and a plant of a great people. 22Let then, which was born in ; and let my grape be kept, and my plant; for with great labour have I made it perfect. 23Nevertheless, if thou wilt cease yet seven days more, (but thou shalt not in them, 24But go into a field of flowers, where no house is builded, and eat only the flowers of the field; taste no , drink no , but eat flowers only;) 25And unto the Highest continually, then will I come and talk with thee. 26So I went my way into the field which is called Ardath, like as he commanded me; and there I sat among the flowers, and did eat of the herbs of the field, and the meat of the same satisfied me. 27After seven days I sat upon the grass, and was vexed within me, like as before: 28And I opened my , and began to talk before , and said, 29O , thou that shewest thyself unto us, thou wast shewed unto our fathers in , in a place where no man treadeth, in a place, when they came out of . 30And thou spakest saying, Hear me, O Israel; and mark my words, thou of . 31For, behold, I sow in you, and it shall bring fruit in you, and ye shall be honoured in it for ever. 32But our fathers, which received , kept it not, and observed not thy ordinances: and though the fruit of thy law did not , neither could it, for it was thine; 33Yet they that received it , because they kept not the thing that was sown in them. 34And, lo, it is a custom, when the ground hath received , or the sea a ship, or any meat or drink, that, that being wherein it was sown or cast into, 35That thing also which was sown, or cast therein, or received, doth , and remaineth not with us: but with us it hath not happened so. 36For we that have received by , and our also which received it 37Notwithstanding perisheth not, but remaineth in his force. 38And when I spake these things in , I looked back with mine eyes, and upon the right side I saw a woman, and, behold, she mourned and wept with a loud voice, and was much grieved in , and her clothes were rent, and she had upon her head. 39Then let I my go that I was in, and turned me unto her, 40And said unto her, Wherefore weepest thou? why art thou so grieved in thy ? 41And she said unto me, Sir, let me alone, that I may bewail myself, and add unto my sorrow, for I am sore vexed in my , and brought very low. 42And I said unto her, What aileth thee? tell me. 43She said unto me, I thy servant have been , and had no child, though I had an husband thirty years, 44And those thirty years I did nothing else day and night, and every hour, but make my, to the Highest. 45After thirty years heard me thine handmaid, looked upon my misery, considered my trouble, and gave me a son: and I was very glad of him, so was my husband also, and all my neighbours: and we gave great unto . 46And I nourished him with great travail. 47So when he grew up, and came to the time that he should have a wife, I made a feast.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Under Rome, 63 BC to AD 100 ›
Judea as a client kingdom and then a province. Roads, garrisons, taxes, crucifixion, and a common Greek language that let a message travel the empire faster than any before it.
- Rome
- The republic tears itself apart in civil war and comes out as an empire under Augustus. What follows is two centuries of relative peace across the whole Mediterranean, enforced by legions and paid for by taxes, with safe roads and safe sea lanes. Every one of Paul's journeys depends on that.
- Judea
- Governed first through Herod the Great, a client king of enormous ability and enormous brutality who rebuilds the temple into one of the wonders of the ancient world, then directly by Roman prefects. Crucifixion is the standard penalty for sedition and is used often and publicly.
- The wider world
- Greek is spoken from Spain to Syria, which means a letter written in Corinth can be read in Rome without translation. Jewish communities already exist in most major cities, which is where the first Christian preaching lands. Mystery religions, imperial cult, and philosophy all compete in the same marketplace.
- Further afield
- The Han dynasty rules China and trades silk westward along routes that touch the Roman world at second hand. In Britain the Roman conquest begins within a decade of the crucifixion.