2 Esdras 6:31-41

31 If therefore you will pray again and fast again for seven days, I will again declare to you greater things than these,
32 because your voice has surely been heard by the Most High; for the Mighty One has seen your uprightness and has also observed the purity that you have maintained from your youth.
33 Therefore he sent me to show you all these things, and to say to you: "Believe and do not be afraid!
34 Do not be quick to think vain thoughts concerning the former times; then you will not act hastily in the last times.' "
35 Now after this I wept again and fasted seven days in the same way as before, in order to complete the three weeks that had been prescribed for me.
36 Then on the eighth night my heart was troubled within me again, and I began to speak in the presence of the Most High.
37 My spirit was greatly aroused, and my soul was in distress.
38 I said, "O Lord, you spoke at the beginning of creation, and said on the first day, "Let heaven and earth be made,' and your word accomplished the work.
39 Then the spirit was blowing, and darkness and silence embraced everything; the sound of human voices was not yet there.
40 Then you commanded a ray of light to be brought out from your store-chambers, so that your works could be seen.
41 "Again, on the second day, you created the spirit of the firmament, and commanded it to divide and separate the waters, so that one part might move upward and the other part remain beneath.

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. Syr Ethiop Arab 1 Arm: Lat adds [by day]
  • [b]. Syr Ethiop: Lat [was not yet from you]
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.