Scriptural Savant

2 Baruch 70

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.

1'Hear therefore the interpretation of the last black waters which are to come [after the black]: this is the word.

2Behold! the days come, and it shall be when the time of the age has ripened, and the harvest of its evil and good seeds has come, that the Mighty One will bring upon the earth and its inhabitants and upon its rulers perturbation of spirit and stupor of heart.

4And the many will be delivered into the hands of the few, and those who are nothing will rule over the strong, and the poor shall have abundance beyond the rich, and the impious will exalt themselves above the heroic.

5And the wise shall be silent, and the foolish shall speak, neither will the thought of men be then confirmed, nor the counsel of the mighty, nor shall the hope of those who hope be confirmed.

6Moreover, it will be when those things which were predicted have come to pass, that confusion will fall upon all men, and some of them will fall in battle, and some of them will perish in anguish, and some of them will be destroyed by their own.

7Then the Most High will reveal those peoples whom He has prepared before, and they will come and make war with the leaders that shall then be left.

8And it will come to pass that whosoever gets safe out of the war will die in the earthquake, and whosoever gets safe out of the earthquake will be burned by the fire, and whosoever gets safe out of the fire will be destroyed by famine.

10For all the earth will devour its inhabitants.

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.