World English Bible

2 Esdras 9:23-38 World English Bible (WEB)

23. Nevertheless if you will cease yet seven days more, (howbeit you shall not fast in them,

24. but shall go into a field of flowers, where no house is builded, and eat only of the flowers of the field; and you shall taste no flesh, and shall drink no wine, but shall eat flowers only;)

25. and pray to the Most High continually, then will I come and talk with you.

26. So I went my way, like as he commanded me, into the field which is called Ardat; and there I sat among the flowers, and did eat of the herbs of the field, and the meat of the same satisfied me.

27. And it came to pass after seven days that I lay upon the grass, and my heart was vexed again, like as before:

28. and my mouth was opened, and I began to speak before the Lord Most High, and said,

29. O Lord, you did show yourself among us, to our fathers in the wilderness, when they went forth out of Egypt, and when they came into the wilderness, where no man treadeth and that bears no fruit;

30. and you did say, Hear me, you Israel; and mark my words, O seed of Jacob.

31. For, behold, I sow my law in you, and it shall bring forth fruit in you, and you⌃ shall be glorified in it for ever.

32. But our fathers, which received the law, kept it not, and observed not the statutes: and the fruit of the law did not perish, neither could it, for it was your;

33. yet they that received it perished, because they kept not the thing that was sown in them.

34. And, behold, it is a custom, that when the ground has received seed, or the sea a ship, or any vessel meat or drink, and when it comes to pass that that which is sown, or that which is launched,

35. or the things which have been received, should come to an end, these come to an end, but the receptacles remain: yet with us it has not happened so.

36. For we that have received the law shall perish by sin, and our heart also which received it.

37. Notwithstanding the law perishes not, but remains in its honor.

38. And when I spoke these things in my heart, I looked about me 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 mind, and her clothes were tore, and she had ashes upon her head.