Common English Bible

2 Esdras 11:3-19 Common English Bible (CEB)

3. Out of its wings grew opposing wings. These became small, tiny wings.

4. Its heads were at rest. The middle head was larger than the other heads, but it was also at rest with them.

5. I kept looking and saw the eagle flying with its wings to rule over the earth and over those who lived on the earth.

6. I saw how everything under heaven was made to submit to it, and no one opposed it, not a single creature that lives on the earth.

7. I looked and saw the eagle rise on its talons and call out to its wings, saying,

8. "Don’t all watch together. Let each one sleep in its place and take turns watching,

9. but the heads will be kept for the end."

10. I looked and saw that the voice didn’t come from its heads but from the middle of its body.

11. I counted its opposing wings, and there were eight of them.

12. A wing arose on the right side, and it ruled over the whole earth;

13. and while it was ruling, it came to an end and disappeared so that its place vanished. The next one rose up and ruled, and it held sway a long time.

14. While it was exercising its rule, it came to its end, so that it disappeared like the previous one.

15. Then a voice rang out, saying to this wing,

16. "Listen, you who have held sway over the earth all this time. I announce this to you before you begin to disappear.

17. No one after you will hold sway as long a time—not even half as long."

18. A third wing raised itself up, and it also exercised rulership like the previous ones, and it too disappeared.

19. And so it happened to each of the wings in turn, to come to power and then never to be seen again.