2 Baruch 3

Related ancient text — scholarly reference

Extra-canonical text — not LDS scripture and not in the KJV Apocrypha. Provided as scholarly reference for parallel literature of the Second Temple period and the early Christian era. Read with discernment; the Apostle Jude quotes 1 Enoch and Paul knew this material, but inclusion here is for study, not doctrine.

1And I said: 'O Lord, my Lord, have I come into the world for this purpose that I might see the evils of my mother? not (so) my Lord.

2If I have found grace in Thy sight, first take my spirit that I may go to my fathers and not behold the destruction of my mother.

3For two things vehemently constrain me: for I cannot resist Thee, and my soul, moreover, cannot behold the evils of my mother.

4But one thing I will say in Thy presence, O Lord.

5What, therefore, will there be after these things? for if Thou destroyest Thy city, and deliverest up Thy land to those that hate us, how shall the name of Israel be again remembered?

6Or how shall one speak of Thy praises? or to whom shall that which is in Thy law be explained?

7Or shall the world return to its nature (of aforetime), and the age revert to primeval silence?

8And shall the multitude of souls be taken away, and the nature of man not again be named?

9And where is all that which thou didst say to Moses regarding us?'

Public-domain text (R.H. Charles 1913 and equivalents). These works are not canonical, but several were widely read in antiquity and one (1 Enoch) is quoted by name in Jude 1:14–15. Useful for understanding the doctrinal landscape from which the apostles and earliest saints taught.