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When I finished speaking these words, the angel who had been sent to me on the previous nights was sent to me again.
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He said to me, "Rise, Ezra, and hear the words I have come to speak to you."
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I said, "Speak, my Lord." He said to me: "A certain sea is set in a spacious place so that it can be deep and vast,
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but its entrance is set in a narrow place, like a river.
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If anyone wants to go to the sea to see it or to rule over it, how can he come into the broad place unless he passes through the narrow?
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Another instance: A city is built and positioned on a broad plain, full of all good things.
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Its entrance, however, is narrow and located on a precipice so that there is fire on the right and deep water on the left.
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There is a single path located between them, between the fire and the water, and the path has only room for human footprints.
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If that city is given to someone as an inheritance, if the heir doesn't pass through the danger, how will the heir receive the inheritance?"
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I said, "Indeed, Lord." He said to me: "So also is Israel's portion. I indeed made the world on account of them.
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When Adam transgressed my ordinances, what had been made was judged,