35. for Judgement Day comes after death. We will be brought back to life, and the righteous people will be made known, while what the godless people have done will be exposed.
36. But now for forty days, no one is to come near me or try to find me.”
37. As I had been commanded, I took the five men, and we went to the field and stayed there.
38. On the next day I suddenly heard a voice saying, “Ezra, open your mouth and drink what I am giving you.”
39. So I opened my mouth, and I was handed a cup full of a fiery-coloured liquid,
40. which I took and drank. When I had drunk it, my mind overflowed with understanding, and wisdom increased within me as my memory became perfect.
41. I began to speak and went on talking without stopping.
42. God Most High also gave wisdom to the five men with me, and they took turns at writing down what I said. They used an alphabet that they had not known before, and worked for forty days, writing in the daytime and eating at night.
43. I spoke all day long, and I was not silent even at night.
44. During the forty days, 94 books were written.
45. At the end of the forty days, God Most High said to me, “You are now to make public the first 24 books that you wrote, so that everyone, whether they are worthy or not, may read them.
46. But the last seventy books that you wrote are to be held back and to be given only to those who are wise among your people,
47. because these books contain a flood of understanding, a fountain of wisdom, and a river of knowledge.”
48. Then I did as I was told.