22. So let them perish — all those people who were born only to be lost. But let my chosen people be kept safe — those for whom I worked so hard to bring them to perfection.
23. “And now, Ezra, you must wait seven more days, but do not fast this time.
24. Go to a field of wild flowers where no one has ever lived and eat nothing but the flowers — do not eat any meat or drink any wine.
25. Pray the whole time to God Most High. Then I will come and talk with you again.”
26. I obeyed the angel's command and went to a field called Ardat. I sat there among the flowers and ate the wild plants, and that was enough food for me.
27. After seven days I was lying on the grass, and once again my thoughts began to trouble me.
28. Then I began to speak and said to God Most High,
29. “O Lord, you revealed yourself to your ancestors when they were travelling through the trackless, barren desert after they had left Egypt. You said to them,