1   ‘But when my son entered his wedding-chamber, he fell down dead. 2   So we all put out our lamps, and all my neighbours came to comfort me; I controlled my grief till the evening of the following day. 3   When they had all ceased urging me to take comfort and control my grief, I rose and stole away in the night, and came here, as you can see, to this field. 4   I have made up my mind never to go back to the town, but to stay here eating nothing and drinking nothing, and to continue my mourning and fasting unbroken till I die.’

5   At that I interrupted the train of my thoughts, and I spoke sternly to the woman: 6   ‘You are the most foolish woman in the world,’ I said; ‘are you blind to the grief and sufferings of our nation? 7   It is for the sorrow and humiliation of Zion, the mother of us all, that you should mourn so deeply; 8   you should share in our common mourning and sorrow. 9   But you are deep in sorrow for your one son. Ask the earth and she will tell you; she must mourn for the thousands and thousands who come to birth upon her. 10   From her we all originally sprang, and there are more to come. Almost all her children go to perdition, and their vast numbers are wiped out. 11   Who then has the better right to be in mourning—the earth, who has lost such vast numbers, or you, whose sorrow is for one alone? 12   You may say to me, “But my grief is very different from the earth's grief; I have lost the fruit of my own womb, which I brought to birth with pain and travail, 13   but it is only in the course of nature that the vast numbers now alive on earth should depart in the same way as they have come.” 14   My answer to that is: at the cost of pain you have been a mother, but in the same way the earth has always been the mother of mankind, bearing fruit to earth's creator.

15   ‘Keep your sorrow to yourself, therefore, and bear your misfortunes bravely. 16   If you will accept God's decree as just, then in due time you will receive your son back again, and win an honoured name among women. 17   So go back to the town and to your husband.’

18   ‘No, I will not,’ she replied; ‘I will not go back to the town; I will stay here to die.’

19    20   But I continued to argue with her. ‘Do not do what you say,’ I urged; ‘be persuaded because of Zion's misfortunes, and take comfort to yourself from the sorrow of Jerusalem. 21   You see how our

Visions of the last days sanctuary has been laid waste, our altar demolished, and our temple destroyed. 22   Our harps are unstrung, our hymns silenced, our shouts of joy cut short; the light of the sacred lamp is out, and the ark of our covenant has been taken as spoil; the holy vessels are defiled, and the name which God has conferred on us is disgraced; our leading men ^note have been treated shamefully, our priests burnt alive, and the Levites taken off into captivity; our virgins have been raped and our wives ravished, our godfearing men carried off, and our children abandoned; our youths have been enslaved, and our strong warriors reduced to weakness. 23   Worst of all, Zion, once sealed with God's own seal, has forfeited its glory and is in the hands of our enemies. 24   Then throw off your own heavy grief, and lay all your sorrows aside; may the Mighty God restore you to his favour, may the Most High give you rest and peace after your troubles!’

25   Suddenly, while I was still speaking to the woman, I saw her face begin to shine; her countenance flashed like lightning, and I shrank from her in terror. 26   While I wondered what this meant, she suddenly uttered a loud and terrible cry, which shook the earth. 27   I looked up and saw no longer a woman but a complete city, built ^note on massive foundations. 28   I cried aloud in terror, ‘Where is the angel Uriel, who visited me before? It is his doing that I have fallen into this bewilderment, that all my hopes are shattered, ^note and all my prayers in vain.’

29   I was still speaking when the angel appeared who had visited me before. 30   When he saw me lying in a dead faint, unconscious on the ground, he grasped me by my right hand, put strength into me, and raised me to my feet. 31   ‘What is the matter?’ he asked. ‘Why are you overcome? What was it that disturbed your mind and made you faint?’ 32   ‘It was because you deserted me’, I replied. ‘I did what you told me: I came out to the field; and what I have seen here and can still see is beyond my power to relate.’

33   ‘Stand up like a man,’ he said, ‘and I will explain it to you.’

34   ‘Speak, my lord,’ I replied; ‘only do not abandon me and leave me to die unsatisfied. 35   For I have seen and I hear things beyond my understanding—unless this is all an illusion and a dream. 36    37   I beg you to tell me, my lord, the meaning of my vision.’

38   ‘Listen to me,’ replied the angel, ‘while I explain to you the

Visions of the last days meaning of the things that terrify you; for the Most High has revealed many secrets to you. 39   He has seen your blameless life, your unceasing grief for your people, and your deep mourning over Zion. 40   Here then is the meaning of the vision. 41   A little while ago you saw a woman in mourning, and tried to give her comfort; 42   now you no longer see that woman, but a whole city. 43   She told you she had lost her son, and this is the explanation. 44   The woman you saw is Zion, which you now see as a city with all its buildings. 45   She told you she was childless for thirty years; that was because there were three thousand years in which sacrifices were not yet offered in Zion. 46   But then, after the three thousand years, Solomon built the city and offered the sacrifices; that was the time when the barren woman bore her son. 47   She took great pains, she said, over his upbringing; that was the period when Jerusalem was inhabited. 48   Then she told you of the great loss she suffered, how her son died on the day he entered his wedding-chamber; that was the destruction which overtook Jerusalem. 49   Such then was the vision that you saw—the woman mourning for her son—and you tried to comfort her in her sufferings; this was the revelation you had to receive. 50   Seeing your sincere grief and heartfelt sympathy for the woman, the Most High is now showing you her radiant glory and her beauty. 51   That was why I told you to stay in a field where no house stood, 52   for I knew that the Most High intended to send you this revelation. 53   I told you to come to this field, where no foundation had been laid for any building; 54   for in the place where the city of the Most High was to be revealed, no building made by man could stand.

55   ‘Have no fear then, Ezra, and set your trembling heart at rest; go into the city, and see the magnificence of the buildings, so far as your eyes have power to see it all. 56   Then, after that, you shall hear as much as your ears have power to hear. 57   You are more blessed than most other men, and few have such a name with the Most High as you have. 58   Stay here till tomorrow night, 59   when the Most High will show you in dreams and visions what he intends to do to the inhabitants of earth in the last days.’ I did as I was told and slept there that night and the next.

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