2 Esdras 15 - New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition 2021(NRSVUE)

2 Esdras 15Vengeance on the Wicked

1 Speak in the ears of my people the words of the prophecy that I will put in your mouth, says the Lord,

2

5 and their trees shall be ruined by blight and hail and by a terrible tempest.

14 their houses with the sword and plunder their goods because of hunger for bread and because of great tribulation.

20See how I am calling together all the kings of the earth to turn to me, says God, from the rising sun and from the south, from the east and from Lebanon, to turn and repay what they have given them.

21

25I will not spare them. Depart, you faithless children! Do not pollute my sanctuary.

26For God knows all who sin against him; therefore he will hand them over to death and slaughter.

27Already calamities have come upon the whole earth, and you shall remain in them; God will not deliver you, because you have sinned against him.

A Terrifying Vision of Warfare

28What a terrifying sight, appearing from the east!

29 from the forest, and with great power they shall come and engage them in battle, and with their tusks they shall devastate a portion of the land of the Assyrians with their teeth.

31And then the dragons, remembering their origin, shall become still stronger, and if they combine in great power and turn to pursue them,

32then these shall be disorganized and silenced by their power and shall turn and flee.

33 and there shall be blood from the sword as high as a horse’s belly

36and a man’s thigh and a camel’s hock.

37And there shall be fear and great trembling on the earth; those who see that wrath shall be horror-stricken, and they shall be seized with trembling.

38 raised in wrath and shall dispel it, and the tempest that was to cause destruction by the east wind shall be driven violently toward the south and west.

40 shall rise and destroy all the earth and its inhabitants and shall pour out upon every high and lofty place a terrible tempest,

41fire and hail and flying swords and floods of water, so that all the fields and all the streams shall be filled with the abundance of those waters.

42They shall destroy cities and walls, mountains and hills, trees of the forests, and grass of the meadows and their grain.

43 and all its fury; then the dust and smoke shall reach the sky, and all who are around it shall mourn for it.

45And those who survive shall serve those who have destroyed it.

Judgment on Asia

46 Therefore, God says,

49 shall perish of hunger, and they shall eat their own flesh in hunger for bread and drink their own blood in thirst for water.

59Unhappy above all others, you shall come and suffer fresh miseries.

60As they pass by they shall crush the hateful city and shall destroy a part of your land and abolish a portion of your glory, when they return from devastated Babylon.

61 and they shall be like fire to you.

62They shall devour you and your cities, your land and your mountains; they shall burn with fire all your forests and your fruitful trees.

63Rev 18.15–17They shall carry your children away captive, plunder your wealth, and mar the glory of your face.