Twenty-Four Books

¹⁹Then I answered and said, “Let me speak in your presence, Lord. ²⁰For I will go, as you have commanded me, and I will reprove the people who are now living; but who will warn those who will be born hereafter? For the world lies in darkness, and its inhabitants are without light. ²¹For your law has been burned, and so no one knows the things which have been done or will be done by you. ²²If then I have found favor with you, send the holy spirit into me, and I will write everything that has happened in the world from the beginning, the things that were written in your law, so that people may be able to find the path, and that those who want to live in the last days may do so.” ²³He answered me and said, “Go and gather the people, and tell them not to seek you for forty days. ²⁴But prepare for yourself many writing tablets, and take with you Sarea, Dabria, Selemia, Ethanus, and Asiel—these five, who are trained to write rapidly; ²⁵and you shall come here, and I will light in your heart the lamp of understanding, which shall not be put out until what you are about to write is finished. ²⁶And when you have finished, some things you shall make public, and some you shall deliver in secret to the wise; tomorrow at this hour you shall begin to write.” [ . . . ]

³⁸And on the next day, a voice called me, saying, “Ezra, open your mouth and drink what I give you to drink.” ³⁹So I opened my mouth, and a full cup was offered to me; it was full of something like water, but its color was like fire. ⁴⁰I took it and drank; and when I had drunk it, my heart poured forth understanding, and wisdom increased in my breast, for my spirit retained its memory, ⁴¹and my mouth was opened and was no longer closed. ⁴²Moreover, the Most High gave understanding to the five men, and by turns they wrote what was dictated, using characters that they did not know. They sat forty days; they wrote during the daytime, and ate their bread at night. ⁴³But as for me, I spoke in the daytime and was not silent at night. ⁴⁴So during the forty days, ninety-four books were written. ⁴⁵And when the forty days were ended, the Most High spoke to me, saying, “Make public the twenty-four books that you wrote first, and let the worthy and the unworthy read them; ⁴⁶but keep the seventy that were written last, in order to give them to the wise among your people. ⁴⁷For in them is the spring of understanding, the fountain of wisdom, and the river of knowledge.” ⁴⁸And I did so. [ . . . ] ⁵⁰At that time Ezra was caught up, and taken to the place of those who are like him, after he had written all these things. And he was called the scribe of the knowledge of the Most High for ever and ever.

Translation from the New Revised Standard Version.