26. And when you have done, some things shall you publish openly, and some things shall you deliver in secret to the wise: tomorrow this hour shall you begin to write.
27. Then went I forth, as he commanded me, and gathered all the people together, and said,
28. Hear these words, O Israel.
29. Our fathers at the beginning were strangers in Egypt, and they were delivered from thence,
30. and received the law of life, which they kept not, which you⌃ also have transgressed after them.
31. Then was the land, even the land of Sion, given you for a possession: but you⌃ yourselves, and your fathers, have done unrighteousness, and have not kept the ways which the Most High commanded you.
32. And forasmuch as he is a righteous judge, he took from you for a while the thing that he had given you.
33. And now you⌃ are here, and your brethren are among you.
34. Therefore if so be that you⌃ will rule over your own understanding, and instruct your hearts, you⌃ shall be kept alive, and after death you⌃ shall obtain mercy.
35. For after death shall the judgement come, when we shall live again: and then shall the names of the righteous be manifest, and the works of the ungodly shall be declared.
36. Let no man therefore come to me now, nor seek after me these forty days.
37. So I took the five men, as he commanded me, and we went forth into the field, and remained there.
38. And it came to pass on the morrow that, behold, a voice called me, saying, Esdras, open your mouth, and drink that I give you to drink.
39. Then opened I my mouth, and, behold, there was reached to me a full cup, which was full as it were with water, but the color of it was like fire.
40. And I took it, and drank: and when I had drunk of it, my heart uttered understanding, and wisdom grew in my breast, for my spirit retained its memory:
41. and my mouth was opened, and shut no more.
42. The Most High gave understanding to the five men, and they wrote by course the things that were told them, in characters which they knew not, and they sat forty days: now they wrote in the day-time, and at night they ate bread.
43. As for me, I spoke in the day, and by night I held not my tongue.