Глава 16

The inevitability of disasters threatening Babylon, Asia, Egypt and Syria (1–16). Portrayal of these disasters (17–35). Their intimacy (36–49). Calling the sinful world to repentance (50–68). Trials facing God's chosen ones (69–78). In Chapter XV the author spoke separately about Egypt, Palmyra, Rome and Asia. Now he addresses everyone together. In his diatribe, it is important to highlight the historical element that captures the author’s contemporary disasters. 3Ezra 16:1 Woe to you, Babylon and Asia, woe to you, Egypt and Syria! 3Ezra 16:2 Gird yourself with sackcloth and sackcloth, mourn for your sons, and be sick, because your destruction is near. 3Ezra 16:3 A sword has been sent against you, and who can turn it away? 3Ezra 16:4 A fire has been sent against you, and who will quench it? 3Ezra 16:5 Calamities have been sent against you, and who will turn them away? 3Ezra 16:6 Will anyone drive out a hungry lion in the forest, or instantly quench the fire in the straw when it begins to flare up? 3Ezra 16:7 Can anyone turn back an arrow shot by a strong archer? 3Ezra 16:8 The mighty Lord sends disasters, and who will turn them away? 3Ezra 16:9 Fire came out of His wrath, and who will quench it? 3Ezra 16:10 He will flash with lightning, and who will not be afraid? It will roar, and who will not be horrified? 3Ezra 16:11 The Lord will look threateningly, and who will not be completely crushed at His presence? 3Ezra 16:12 The earth and its foundations shook; the sea is troubled from the bottom, and its waves and its fish are troubled because of the presence of the Lord and because of the greatness of His power. 12. In 262, the Roman Empire was visited by a terrible earthquake, during which many cities were flooded by the sea. However, one can see here the usual depiction of God’s wrath against sinners. 3Ezra 16:13 For His right hand is strong, which bends the bow; His sharp arrows, which He shoots, will not fail when they are sent to the ends of the earth. 3Ezra 16:14 Behold, disasters are sent, and will not return until they come to the earth. 3Ezra 16:15 A fire is kindled and will not be quenched until it has consumed the foundations of the earth. 3Ezra 16:16 Just as an arrow shot by a strong archer does not return, so the disasters that are sent to the earth will not return. 3Ezra 16:17 Woe is me, woe is me! Who will deliver me in those days? 3Ezra 16:18 Sicknesses will begin, and many will groan; famine will begin, and many will die; wars will begin, and fear will seize the rulers; disasters will begin, and everyone will tremble. 3Ezra 16:19 What should I do when disasters come? 3Ezra 16:20 Behold, famine and pestilence, and tribulation and distress are sent as scourges for correction: 3Ezra 16:21 But despite all this, people will not turn from their iniquities and will not always remember the scourges. 3Ezra 16:22 Behold, everything will be cheap on earth, and they will think that peace has come; but then disasters will befall the land - sword, famine and great confusion. 3Ezra 16:23 Many of the inhabitants of the earth will perish from hunger, and others who suffer the famine will fall by the sword. 3Ezra 16:24 And the corpses will be thrown away like dung, and there will be no one to mourn for them, for the land will be desolate, and its cities will be destroyed. 18–24. The picture of disasters painted here completely coincides with the events that took place in Egypt in the middle of the 3rd century (XV:16–19). 3Ezra 16:25 There will be no one left to till the ground or sow in it. 3Ezra 16:26 The trees will bear fruit, and who will gather it? 3Ezra 16:27 When the grapes are ripe, who will trample them? For everywhere there will be great desolation. 3Ezra 16:28 It will be difficult for a man to see a man, or to hear his voice, 3Ezra 16:29 For from the inhabitants of the city there will remain no more than ten, and from the villagers - two people, who will hide in the dense groves and clefts of the rocks. 3Ez.16:30 As in an olive garden sometimes three or four olives remain on the trees, 3Ezra 16:31 Or in a vineyard that has been picked, those who carefully pick the grapes will not see through a few grapes: 3Ezra 16:32 So in those days three or four will remain when their houses are searched with the sword. 29–32. Wed. Matthew XXIV:40–41. 3Ezra 16:33 The land will be desolate, its fields will be desolate, its roads and all its paths will be overgrown with thorns, because there will be no one to walk on them. 3Ezra 16:34 The maidens will weep, having no suitors; wives will cry without having husbands; Their daughters will cry, having no help. 3Ezra 16:35 Their suitors will be killed in war, and their husbands will perish from hunger. 3Ezra 16:36 Hear this, and take heed, O servants of the Lord! 3Ezra 16:37 This is the word of the Lord: listen to it, and do not believe the gods about which the Lord speaks. 3Ezra 16:38 Behold, disasters are coming, and they will not tarry. 3Ezra 16:39 Like a pregnant woman, when in the ninth month it is time for her to give birth to a son, two or three hours before birth, pain seizes her womb and, when the baby leaves the womb, does not slow down for a single minute: 3Ezra 16:40 So disasters will not be slow to come to the earth, and the people of that time will groan; pain will overwhelm them. 1Ezra 16:41 Hear the word, my people: prepare for battle, and in the midst of disasters, be like strangers from the earth. 3Ezra 16:42 Let him who sells be as one preparing to flee, and he who buys as one preparing to perish; 3 Ezra 16:43 he who trades, as if he did not expect any profit, and who builds a house, as if he did not expect to live in it. 3Ezra 16:44 Let the sower think that he will not reap, and the vinedresser that he will not gather grapes; 3Ezra 16:45 Those who marry will bear no children, and those who do not marry will be like widowers. 42–45. Wed. 1 Cor VII:29–30. 3Ezra 16:46 Therefore all those who labor labor without profit, 3Ezra 16:47 For foreigners will take advantage of the fruits of their labors, and they will plunder their property, destroy their houses and enslave their sons, because in captivity and hunger they give birth to their children. 47. By foreigners the author means the Goths, whose sudden appearance was looked upon at that time as a sign of the approaching end. Their name was compared with the names of the apocalyptic peoples of Gog and Magog (Rev XX:7; Ezekiel XXXVIII-XXXIX), companions of the Antichrist. How great was the expectation of the second coming in the middle of the third century, this is evidenced by the emergence of a whole schism on the issue of the thousand-year Kingdom. 3Ezra 16:48 Those who engage in predation, the longer they decorate their cities and their houses, their possessions and their faces, 3Ezra 16:49 I will hate you all the more for their sins, says the Lord. 3Ezra 16:50 As a harlot hates an honest and well-behaved woman, 3Ezra 16:51 So righteousness will hate the unrighteousness that adorns itself, and will accuse its face when He comes who will defend him who persecutes every sin on earth. 3Ezra 16:52 Therefore do not imitate unrighteousness and its works, 1Ezra 16:53 For yet a little while, and unrighteousness will be removed from the earth, and righteousness will reign over you. 3Ezra 16:54 Let not the sinner say that he has not sinned, for burning coals will burn on the head of the one who says, I have not sinned against the Lord God and His glory. 54. Wed. Proverbs XXV:22–23; Rome XII:20. 3Ezra 16:55 The Lord knows all the works of men, and their undertakings, and their thoughts, and their hearts. 3Ezra 16:56 He said, “Let there be an earth,” and the earth appeared; “Let there be heaven,” and it was. 3Ezra 16:57 By His word the stars were created, and He knows the number of the stars. 3Ezra 16:58 He contemplates the deeps and the hidden things in them, and measured the sea and what is in it. 3Ezra 16:59 By His word He shut up the sea among the waters, and hung the earth on the waters. 3Ezra 16:60 He stretched out the sky like a tent, and founded it on the waters. 3Ezra 16:61 He placed springs of water in the desert and lakes on the tops of the mountains, to bring down rivers from the high rocks to water the earth. 3Ezra 16:62 He created man and placed his heart in the midst of his body, and put into him spirit, life and intelligence 3Ezra 16:63 and the breath of Almighty God, who created all things and contemplates all the hidden things in the hidden places of the earth. 1Ezra 16:64 He knows your intention and what you think in your hearts when you sin and want to hide your sins. 3Ezra 16:65 Therefore the Lord sees all your deeds perfectly clearly, and will convict you all; 1Ezra 16:66 And you will be put to shame when your sins are revealed to men, and iniquities appear as accusers in that day. 3Ezra 16:67 What will you do and how will you hide your sins before God and His angels? 3Ezra 16:68 Behold, God is the Judge; fear Him; forsake your sins and cease to do iniquity forever, and God will deliver you and deliver you from all sorrow. 3Ezra 16:69 For behold, the wrath of a large army is kindled against you, and they will seize some of you and kill you to sacrifice to idols. 3Ezra 16:70 Whoever is of the same mind with them, they will subject them to ridicule, reproach and trampling under foot. 3Ezra 16:71 For in all places and in the neighboring cities many will rise up against those who fear the Lord. 69–71. Gallian's reign, with minor exceptions, was a time of comparative calm for Christians. Christians were granted the rights of a religious society. Their religion was declared free from persecution. The author anticipates a new persecution in the near future. Perhaps this is the persecution of the Antichrist, whose coming was then expected. 3Ezra 16:72 They will, like madmen, without mercy, plunder and lay waste everything from those who fear the Lord. 3Ezra 16:73 They will lay waste and plunder their property, and drive them out of their houses. 3Ezra 16:74 Then My chosen ones will be tested, just as gold is tested by fire. 3Ezra 16:75 Hear, my beloved, says the Lord: these days of trouble are before you, and I will deliver you from them. 3Ezra 16:76 Do not fear or doubt, for God is your leader. 1Ezra 16:77 If you keep My commandments and commandments, says the Lord God, then your sins will not be a burden that weighs you down, and your iniquities will not overcome you. 75–77. The author’s task was to strengthen Christians in firmly enduring the upcoming torment. He achieves this by promising God's elect a quick deliverance from all trials. The author believes in the nearness of the Kingdom of the Messiah, the participants of which will be Christians who remain steadfast amid the disasters of the pagan world 3Ezra 16:78 Woe to those who are bound by their sins and covered with their iniquities! This is a field that is overgrown with bushes and through which the path is covered with thorns, so that a person cannot pass: it is abandoned and doomed to destruction by fire.