1
Ezra said to the messenger of Elohim, “Tell me what has been prepared for the righteous and what has been prepared for sinners.”
2
The messenger answered, “Ask, and I shall tell you according to what has been entrusted to me.”
3
“For the righteous are prepared great rejoicing, rest, and light that does not fade.”
4
“For those who cling to lawlessness are prepared outer darkness and the fire of Judgment.”
5
Ezra said, “My master, if this is so, who among the sons of Adam can stand? For all have sinned in one matter or another.”
6
“If every failure is weighed without mercy, would not the beasts be more fortunate than Adam, since they do not carry the same account?”
7
The messenger rebuked him: “Do not speak carelessly concerning the Judgment of the One above you. You judge from the narrowness of mortal sight.”
8
Ezra said, “Then explain the path of the being when it departs from the body, so that I may understand what follows death.”
9
“Does the being remain beside the body? Is it taken immediately? Who receives it, and where is it carried?”
10
The messenger said that deeds accompany the being when the body can no longer act.
11
“Therefore practice what is good while the hands still move, and show mercy while mercy can still be performed.”
12
“The Day appointed for completion is fearsome, because then what was hidden is made manifest.”
13
“Do not delay righteousness as though your days were without number.”
14
“When a righteous being departs, a good messenger approaches it; when a lawless being departs, a terrifying messenger approaches according to the deeds attached to it.”
15
“The messenger himself is not made evil by office; rather the condition of the being determines whether the encounter is received as shalom or terror.”
16
The messenger took Ezra in vision and showed him the road by which the being is carried toward the east.
17
They passed through frost and snow, darkness and hail, ice and storm, hosts of the Adversary, violent waters, terrible rains, narrow passages, and high places.
18
Ezra marveled and said, “Fearsome is this road. One step follows another, and before the traveler are streams like fire.”
19
The messenger said, “Along this road are seven camps and seven steps toward the place of the divine Throne.”
20
“The first stations are dreadful and astonishing; the second are fearsome beyond easy description.”
21
“The third is like Gei-Hinnom joined to bitter cold; the fourth is filled with accusation, conflict, and struggle.”
22
“At the fifth comes examination. If the being has walked in righteousness, it begins to shine; if it has chosen darkness, its darkness is exposed.”
23
“At the sixth the righteous being shines like the sun.”
24
“At the seventh it is brought near the great Throne, opposite the Garden, toward the glory and sublime light.”
25
Ezra said, “If you have brought me this far, why do you not carry me to the Divinity Himself so that I may see?”
26
The messenger answered, “Vain Adam, you still reason according to mortal nature.”
27
“No Adam can look upon the unveiled face of the Most High, and even the heavenly servants do not seize His essence with their sight.”
28
“We approach the place of His Throne according to the order given to us.”
29
“The Throne is surrounded with fire and glory, and the heavenly hosts stand in fear.”
30
“The guardians cover themselves in reverence and proclaim the holiness of the One who sits above all.”
31
Ezra said, “My master, what then becomes of us sinners when the Adversary has seized those whose deeds accuse them?”
32
The longer Armenian recension answers this question in an explicitly later Christian register, joining mercy after death to the saving work of the Anointed and to intercession performed by the living.
33
It says that those still alive should not despise fasting, prayer, almsgiving, mercy, and acts of devotion performed for those who have departed.
34
The received text presents such petitions as capable of bringing relief to beings held beneath hostile powers.
35
HaSefarim preserves this as a later transmission layer rather than silently projecting it backward into Ezra's earlier Jewish apocalyptic world.
36
The underlying ethical command remains: while breath remains, practice mercy, repentance, righteousness, prayer, and care for others.
37
Ezra then asked why prayer sometimes seems fruitless when an ish prays while his heart remains bound to ordinary desire.
38
The messenger answered that a divided mind asks with its lips while wandering elsewhere in its thought.
39
“Do not suppose that words alone rise merely because the mouth has formed them. Let the heart stand where the prayer stands.”
40
“Purify the intention, turn the whole being toward Elohim, and do not let the mind remain captive to the world while the tongue seeks heaven.”