25. Come here, and I will light in your heart the lamp of understanding. It won’t be extinguished until you have written everything down.
26. When you are finished, you will make some things public, others you will transmit secretly to the wise. You will begin to write tomorrow at this time."
27. I did as he commanded me. I gathered all the people and said,
28. "Hear these words, Israel.
29. At first our fathers lived as strangers in Egypt, and they were liberated from there.
30. They received the Law of life, but they didn’t keep it, and you also transgressed after them.
31. You were given land by allotment in the region of Zion. You and your fathers did evil and didn’t keep the ways that the Most High had commanded you.
32. Since he is a just judge, in time he took away from you what he granted.
33. Now you are here, and your relatives live even farther away.
34. If then you will rule your mind and instruct your heart, you will be kept alive, and after death you will attain mercy.
35. Judgment comes after death, when we are restored to life, and then the names of the just will appear and the deeds of the wicked will be exposed.
36. But let no one approach me now or come looking for me for forty days."
37. I took the five men, as he had commanded me, and we went out into the field and remained there.
38. So it happened to me on the next day that a voice called me: "Ezra, open your mouth and drink what I give you to drink."
39. So I opened my mouth, and a full cup was set before me. It was full of something like water, but its color was like fire.
40. I took it and drank, and when I had drunk it my heart poured forth understanding, and wisdom increased in my heart, for my spirit retained memory.
41. My mouth was opened and wasn’t shut anymore.