2 Esdras 7:105-115

105 Just so, no one will ever intercede for another; everyone will then bear his or her own deeds of justice or injustice."

106 I answered: "How then do we find that Abraham first interceded for the people of Sodom; and Moses for our ancestors who sinned in the desert;

107 and Joshua, who came after him, for Israel, in the days of Achan;

108 and Samuel in the days of Saul; and David for the plague; and Solomon for those in the sanctuary;

109 and Elijah for those who received the rain, and for a dead person that he might live;

110 and Hezekiah for the people in the days of Sennacherib, and many for many people?

111 If, therefore, the just prayed for the wicked when corruption had increased and injustice had multiplied, why won't it be the same then?"

112 He answered me: "The present world isn't the end. Glory does not continuously remain in it, and so those who were able prayed for the weak.

113 But the Judgment Day will be the end of this time and the beginning of the future, endless time in which decay is no more,

114 indulgence is undone, unbelief is cut off, but justice is fully grown, and truth arisen.

115 Therefore, no one will then be able to have mercy on someone who has been condemned in the judgment, nor to overwhelm one who has conquered."

Footnotes

• [a] Syr, Eth; Lat omits in the days of Saul.
• [b] Lat breach or rupture
• [c] Syr, Eth; Lat omits not.