Home

For Teaching

2 Esdras 8: What the Passage Says

167 claims across 63 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What 2 Esdras 8 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

The one speaking with Esdras tells him the Most High made this world for many but the world to come for few, and that many are created while few are saved. Esdras prays at length, describing how God forms a child in the womb, feeds it, raises it and corrects it, and he asks God to look at those who serve him rather than at the sins of the people, and to be merciful to those who have no good works stored up. The answer grants that some of what he said is right, compares people to seed that does not all come up, and tells him paradise is opened for him and those like him, and to ask no more about the many who perish. Esdras ends by saying he has been shown the wonders of the last times but not when they will come.

Claim by Claim

  1. 8:1
    • The speaker answered Esdras.
    • The Most High made this world for many.
    • The Most High made the world to come for few.
  2. 8:2
    • The speaker says he will tell Esdras a similitude.
    • If you ask the earth, it will say that it gives much clay from which earthen vessels are made.
    • The earth gives only a little dust from which gold comes.
    • The course of this present world is like that.
  3. 8:3
    • Many have been created.
    • Few shall be saved.
  4. 8:4
    • Esdras answered and spoke.
    • Esdras tells his soul to swallow down understanding.
    • Esdras tells his soul to devour wisdom.
  5. 8:5
    • The soul has agreed to give ear.
    • The soul is willing to prophesy.
    • The soul has no more span than only to live.
  6. 8:6
    • Esdras addresses the Lord.
    • Esdras asks that the Lord permit his servant that they may pray before him.
    • Esdras asks that the Lord give them seed for their heart.
    • Esdras asks that the Lord give cultivation to their understanding.
    • The purpose is that fruit may come from it.
    • Without this, no corrupt man who bears the place of a man can live.
  7. 8:7
    • The Lord alone exists.
    • All of us are one workmanship of the Lord's hands.
    • The Lord has said this.
  8. 8:8
    • The body is now fashioned in the mother's womb.
    • The Lord gives the body its members.
    • The Lord's creature is preserved in fire and water.
    • For nine months the Lord's workmanship endures the creature created in her.
  9. 8:9
    • That which keeps and that which is kept shall both be preserved.
    • When the time comes, the preserved womb gives up the things that grew in it.
  10. 8:10
    • The Lord has commanded that milk be given out of the parts of the body, that is, out of the breasts.
    • The milk is the fruit of the breasts.
  11. 8:11
    • The purpose is that the thing which is fashioned may be nourished for a time.
    • This lasts until the Lord disposes it to his mercy.
  12. 8:12
    • The Lord brought it up with his righteousness.
    • The Lord nurtured it in his law.
    • The Lord reformed it with his judgment.
  13. 8:13
    • The Lord will put it to death as his creature.
    • The Lord will make it live as his work.
  14. 8:14
    • The condition is that the Lord destroy him who was fashioned with so great labour.
    • It is an easy thing to be ordained by the Lord's commandment that the thing which was made might be preserved.
  15. 8:15
    • Esdras says he will now speak to the Lord.
    • Concerning man in general, the Lord knows best.
    • Esdras is sorry for the sake of the Lord's people.
  16. 8:16
    • Esdras mourns for the Lord's inheritance.
    • Esdras is heavy for Israel.
    • Esdras is troubled for the sake of Jacob.
  17. 8:17
    • Esdras will begin to pray before the Lord for himself and for them.
    • Esdras sees the falls of those who dwell in the land.
  18. 8:18
    • Esdras has heard of the swiftness of the judgment that is to come.
  19. 8:19
    • Esdras asks the Lord to hear his voice.
    • Esdras asks the Lord to understand his words.
    • Esdras says he will speak before the Lord.
    • What follows is the beginning of the words of Esdras.
    • These words were spoken before Esdras was taken up.
    • Esdras spoke.
  20. 8:20
    • The Lord dwells in everlastingness.
    • The Lord beholds from above the things in the heaven and in the air.
  21. 8:21
    • The Lord's throne is inestimable.
    • The Lord's glory cannot be comprehended.
    • The hosts of angels stand before the Lord with trembling.
  22. 8:22
    • The Lord's service is carried out in wind and fire.
    • The Lord's word is true.
    • The Lord's sayings are constant.
    • The Lord's commandment is strong.
    • The Lord's ordinance is fearful.
  23. 8:23
    • The Lord's look dries up the depths.
    • The Lord's indignation makes the mountains melt away.
    • The truth bears witness to the Lord.
  24. 8:24
    • Esdras asks the Lord to hear the prayer of his servant.
    • Esdras asks the Lord to give ear to the petition of his creature.
  25. 8:25
    • Esdras will speak while he lives.
    • Esdras will answer as long as he has understanding.
  26. 8:26
    • Esdras asks the Lord not to look upon the sins of his people.
    • Esdras asks the Lord to look on those who serve him in truth.
  27. 8:27
    • Esdras asks the Lord not to regard the wicked inventions of the heathen.
    • Esdras asks the Lord to regard the desire of those who keep his testimonies in afflictions.
  28. 8:28
    • Esdras asks the Lord not to think upon those who have walked feignedly before him.
    • Esdras asks the Lord to remember those who according to his will have known his fear.
  29. 8:29
    • Esdras asks that it not be the Lord's will to destroy those who have lived like beasts.
    • Esdras asks the Lord to look upon those who have clearly taught his law.
  30. 8:30
    • Esdras asks the Lord to take no indignation at those who are deemed worse than beasts.
    • Esdras asks the Lord to love those who always put their trust in his righteousness and glory.
  31. 8:31
    • Esdras and his fathers have passed their lives in ways that belong to death.
    • Because of us sinners the Lord shall be called merciful.
  32. 8:32
    • If the Lord desires to have mercy upon us, he shall be called merciful.
    • We have no works of righteousness.
  33. 8:33
    • The just have many good works laid up with the Lord.
    • The just shall receive reward out of their own deeds.
  34. 8:34
    • Esdras asks what man is, that the Lord should take displeasure at him.
    • Esdras asks what a corruptible generation is, that the Lord should be so bitter toward it.
  35. 8:35
    • In truth there is no man among those who are born who has not dealt wickedly.
    • Among the faithful there is none who has not done amiss.
  36. 8:36
    • In this the Lord's righteousness and goodness shall be declared.
    • The condition is that the Lord be merciful to those who have not the confidence of good works.
  37. 8:37
    • The speaker answered Esdras.
    • Some things Esdras has spoken aright.
    • It shall be according to Esdras's words.
  38. 8:38
    • The speaker will not think on the fashioning of those who have sinned before death, before judgment, before destruction.
  39. 8:39
    • The speaker will rejoice over the fashioning of the righteous.
    • The speaker will remember their pilgrimage.
    • The speaker will remember their salvation.
    • The speaker will remember the reward they shall have.
  40. 8:40
    • As the speaker has now spoken, so shall it come to pass.
  41. 8:41
    • The husbandman sows much seed upon the ground.
    • The husbandman plants many trees.
    • Not all that is sown comes up in its season.
    • Not all that is planted takes root.
    • So it is with those who are sown in the world.
    • They shall not all be saved.
  42. 8:42
    • Esdras answered and spoke.
    • Esdras asks to speak if he has found grace.
  43. 8:43
    • The husbandman's seed perishes if it does not come up and does not receive the Lord's rain in due season.
    • The husbandman's seed perishes if too much rain comes and corrupts it.
  44. 8:44
    • Even so man perishes.
    • Man is formed with the Lord's hands.
    • Man is called the Lord's own image.
    • The Lord is like unto man.
    • For man's sake the Lord has made all things.
    • The Lord has likened man to the husbandman's seed.
  45. 8:45
    • Esdras asks the Lord not to be wroth with us.
    • Esdras asks the Lord to spare his people.
    • Esdras asks the Lord to have mercy upon his own inheritance.
    • The Lord is merciful unto his creature.
  46. 8:46
    • The speaker answered Esdras.
    • Things present are for the present.
    • Things to come are for those who are to come.
  47. 8:47
    • Esdras comes far short of being able to love the speaker's creature more than the speaker does.
    • The speaker has often drawn near to Esdras and to the creature.
    • The speaker has never drawn near to the unrighteous.
  48. 8:48
    • In this also Esdras is marvellous before the Most High.
  49. 8:49
    • Esdras has humbled himself as it becomes him.
    • Esdras has not judged himself worthy to be much glorified among the righteous.
  50. 8:50
    • Many great miseries shall be done to those who dwell in the world in the latter time.
    • The reason is that they have walked in great pride.
  51. 8:51
    • Esdras is told to understand for himself.
    • Esdras is told to seek out the glory for those who are like him.
  52. 8:52
    • Paradise is opened unto you.
    • The tree of life is planted.
    • The time to come is prepared.
    • Plenteousness is made ready.
    • A city is built.
    • Rest is allowed.
    • Perfect goodness and wisdom are made ready.
  53. 8:53
    • The root of evil is sealed up from you.
    • Weakness and the moth are hidden from you.
    • Corruption has fled into hell to be forgotten.
  54. 8:54
    • Sorrows have passed.
    • In the end the treasure of immortality is shown.
  55. 8:55
    • Esdras is told to ask no more questions concerning the multitude of those who perish.
  56. 8:56
    • When they had taken liberty, they despised the Most High.
    • They thought scorn of his law.
    • They forsook his ways.
  57. 8:57
    • They have also trodden down his righteous ones.
  58. 8:58
    • They said in their heart that there is no God.
    • They said this while knowing that they must die.
  59. 8:59
    • As the things aforesaid shall receive you, so thirst and pain are prepared for them.
    • It was not his will that men should come to nought.
  60. 8:60
    • Those who were created have defiled the name of him who made them.
    • They were unthankful to him who prepared life for them.
  61. 8:61
    • Therefore the speaker's judgment is now at hand.
  62. 8:62
    • The speaker has not shown these things to all men.
    • The speaker has shown them to Esdras and to a few like him.
    • Esdras answered and spoke.
  63. 8:63
    • The Lord has now shown Esdras the multitude of the wonders.
    • The Lord will begin to do those wonders in the last times.
    • The Lord has not shown Esdras at what time this will be.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

8:1
"He" is the angel who has been speaking with Esdras through the earlier chapters of the book; the angel is named Uriel, and he answers on God's behalf. "The most High" is a title for God common in Jewish writing of this period. "The world to come" belongs to a standard pairing in that writing: this present age, and the age that begins after it ends.
8:2
Esdras is the Greek and Latin form of the name Ezra; the book is written as the visions of Ezra the scribe, set in Babylon after the destruction of Jerusalem. KJV "similitude" means a comparison or parable. The force of the earth image is quantity against value: clay is everywhere and cheap, gold is present only as scattered dust.
8:3
"Saved" here means kept safe through God's judgment and brought into the world to come.
8:4
Esdras is addressing himself. "My soul" in this idiom means the self, the whole person, not a part of him separate from his body.
8:5
KJV "thou hast agreed to give ear, and art willing to prophesy" follows the Latin copies available to the 1611 translators. Other manuscripts read the opposite: that he came into the world not by his own will and leaves it against his will. The rendering keeps the King James reading.
8:6
KJV "culture" keeps its older sense of cultivation, the working of soil; the farming image runs right through the verse in seed, tilling and fruit. "Beareth the place of a man" means occupies the position of a human being, that is, is human at all.
8:8
"Preserved in fire and water" is obscure and has been explained in several ways. Ancient writers described the unborn child as formed and held among the basic elements, and the phrase seems to say that what God makes is guarded even in conditions that would destroy anything else.
8:9
The keeper is the womb and the kept is the child. The point is that God keeps both, so that when the term is up the womb is still able to give up what grew in it.
8:11
KJV "till thou disposest it to thy mercy" means until you place it in the keeping of your mercy, that is, hand it on to the next stage of your care.
8:12
"Your law" means the teachings God gave Israel through Moses.
8:13
KJV "mortify" means put to death, and "quicken" means make alive. Both were ordinary words in 1611 that have since narrowed or dropped out of use.
8:14
The Latin ends the verse with a question: if you destroy the one it cost you so much labor to make, what was the point of making him? The 1611 translators worked from a difficult reading and produced a different sense, which the rendering follows.
8:16
"Thine inheritance" is a standard term for Israel: the nation is spoken of as the property or portion God has kept for himself. "Jacob" is the ancestor whose other name was Israel, and his name stands here for his descendants as a people.
8:17
KJV "the falls" means failures or lapses, moral stumbles rather than physical falls. "The land" is the land of Israel.
8:18
The judge is God. Esdras has been told that the day of judging is coming very soon.
8:19
The sentence beginning "This is the beginning of the words of Esdras" is a copyist's or editor's heading that has been absorbed into the text, not part of the speech. "Taken up" means carried away from the earth without dying, as Enoch and Elijah were said to have been; the book describes this happening to Esdras at its close. The prayer that follows, verses 20 to 36, circulated separately in the Middle Ages under the title Confession of Ezra and was used as a prayer in its own right.
8:21
The King James "hosts of angels" uses host in its old sense: an army. Picture rank after rank of them.
8:22
KJV "conversant in wind and fire" draws on Psalm 104:4, read in this period as saying that God makes his angels winds and his servants flames of fire. The angels take the form of wind and fire to carry out his errands.
8:23
"The depths" are the seas and the deep waters thought to lie under the earth; the picture is of the ocean drying up under a single look.
8:24
"Give ear" is an old way of saying listen closely.
8:27
KJV "heathen" translates a word meaning simply the nations, the peoples other than Israel. It does not carry the later English sense of savage or irreligious. KJV "testimonies" means the commandments considered as the stated terms of the covenant, the things God has testified to.
8:28
"Feignedly" means pretending, putting on a show. "Thy fear" means deep respect and awe for God, not being scared of him.
8:29
"Lived like animals" means living without thinking about God or about right and wrong.
8:31
The prayer treats wrongdoing as an inherited illness running through the generations, and the rendering keeps that medical image.
8:33
KJV "laid up with thee" pictures good deeds as money deposited in a treasury and held safe until it is paid back out to the depositor.
8:34
"Corruptible" means able to rot and die. "Generation" here means the whole human race, not just one age group.
8:36
The King James says these people have no "confidence of good works." It means no store of good deeds to count on.
8:38
KJV "disposition" here means the arranging or shaping of something at its making, not a person's temperament. The same word carries into the next verse.
8:39
KJV "pilgrimage" means the whole span of a life lived as a stranger away from home, the sense it usually has in older English. It does not mean a journey to a shrine.
8:41
KJV "husbandman" means a farmer, a man who works the soil; "husbandry" was farming.
8:42
"If I have found grace" means if you look on me kindly. It is a polite way of asking permission to speak.
8:44
"Called thine own image" points back to Genesis 1, where humankind is made in God's image. The Latin says that the man is made like God; KJV "because thou art like unto him" reverses the direction, and the rendering follows KJV.
8:45
The King James word "wroth" means angry.
8:47
The Latin of this line reads roughly: you have often counted yourself among the unrighteous, which you must never do. KJV "I have ofttimes drawn nigh unto thee" takes the words instead as God describing his own approach to Esdras, and the rendering follows KJV.
8:49
To make yourself low means you do not act better than other people.
8:50
"The last times" means the very end, when God finishes this world.
8:52
"Paradise" came into Greek from a Persian word for a walled park or garden, and is used both for the garden of Eden and for the restored garden expected at the end of the age. The tree of life stands in the middle of the garden in Genesis 2 and 3. KJV "a city is builded" refers to the heavenly Jerusalem, pictured as already built and waiting.
8:53
KJV "the moth" stands for slow, silent ruin, the insect that eats stored cloth. KJV "hell" here translates the Latin word for the underworld, the place where the dead are held, rather than a place of fire and punishment.
8:54
Immortality means never dying. It is spoken of as treasure, something worth more than anything else.
8:56
KJV "taken liberty" means received freedom: they were given the freedom to choose, and this is what they did with it.
8:57
"Trampled down" means walked all over. It is a picture for treating people cruelly.
8:58
"Said in their heart" means thought it to themselves. It is something said silently, inside.
8:59
The King James "come to nought" means come to nothing, be wiped out completely.
8:61
"My judging" means the time when God decides about every person.
8:63
"The last times" means the final days of the world, just before God judges it.

Read 2 Esdras 8