1
Ezra petitions Yahuah for courage, asking not to be overcome by fear when he is shown the judgments that fall upon sinners.
2
Seven messengers appointed over the infernal regions are given to him, and they carry him beyond the seventieth descent or grade.
3
He sees fiery gates, and at them two lions lie down; flame proceeds from their mouths, nostrils, and eyes.
4
Certain strong or righteous ishim enter and pass through the fire without being harmed.
5
Ezra asks who these are who pass so safely.
6
The messengers answer that these are the righteous whose good report has ascended toward heaven.
7
They are those who gave freely to the poor, clothed the naked, and set their desire toward what is good.
8
Others try to enter the same gates, but dogs tear them and the fire consumes them.
9
Ezra asks who they are.
10
The messengers answer that, in this Christian layer, they denied the Master and committed sexual sin on the day treated by the text as the Master's day.
11
Ezra cries out: 'Yahuah, have mercy upon the sinners.'
12
They lead him lower, beyond the fiftieth grade, and he sees ishim standing under punishments.
13
Fire is cast into the faces of some, while others are beaten with scourges of fire.
14
The earth itself cries out against those who worked lawlessness upon it.
15
Ezra asks who endure such torment continually.
16
The messengers answer that they entered adulterous unions with married women.
17
[SHORT-RECENSION PARALLEL; absent from Barberini numbering.] The women are condemned for adorning themselves to draw other ishim rather than remaining faithful within their own covenant.
18
Ezra again petitions: 'Yahuah, have mercy upon the sinners.'
19
They take him toward the south, where he sees fire, poor ishim, and women suspended while messengers strike them with fiery clubs.
20
Ezra asks who they are and again pleads for mercy.
21
The answer identifies incestuous union with their own mothers as the offense of those shown there.
22
Ezra again cries for mercy.