Abraham could no longer contain himself. "O Mighty, Eternal One, hallowed by Your power! Be favorable to my petition. As you have brought me up to your height, so make known to me, your beloved one, as much as I ask. Will what I have seen happen to them for long?"
How long would the suffering last? The oldest question of the oppressed, echoing through every generation that watched empires rise and crush the faithful beneath their weight.
God showed Abraham a multitude of His people and said: "On their account, through four periods of subjugation as you have seen, I shall be provoked by them, and in these my retribution for their deeds shall be accomplished."
The four periods corresponded to the four world-empires: Babylon, Media, Greece, and Rome. Each one a century of dominion over Abraham's descendants, punishment for straying from the covenant.
"But in the fourth outgoing of a hundred years and one hour of the age, the same being a hundred years, it shall be in misfortune among the heathen."
The math was apocalyptic. The entire present age was reckoned as twelve hours, each hour equaling a hundred years, a single cosmic day of 1,200 years. The writer, standing in the aftermath of Rome's destruction of the Temple, believed he was at the edge of the final hour. The suffering was not permanent. It was measured. Counted. Known to God down to the last year.
Abraham had asked: how long? The answer was: there is an end. The age of ungodliness has a fixed duration. When the twelfth hour passes, everything changes.
And I answered and said: “O Mighty, [Eternal One],17 hallowed by Thy power!
Be favourable to my petition, [for for this h ast Th ou b rough t me up here—and shew me] .18 As Thou
hast brought me up to Thy height, so make [this] 17 known to me, Thy beloved one, as much
as I ask—whether what I saw shall happen to them for long?”19
The writer obviously has in min d t h e op erat ions of the Romans under Titus, which ended in the
d es t r u ct i o n of the Temple by fire in A.D. 70. For the burning an d pillaging of the Temple cf. Joseph us ,
War, vi. 4, 5 f.; cf. also 4 Ezra x. 21 f.
Of those wh o were not killed in the Roman war, some were reserv ed for the victor’s triumph, some
for the arena, an d the rest were sold as slaves; cf. Josephus, War, vi. 9, 2 f.
4
Omitted by S.
A, from now onward.
K, angered.
7
Lit. so much.
A omits.
Israel’s captivity and sufferings are due to lapse into idolatry.
10
So A K; but S omits.
A omits but.
Something has fallen out of the text here.
So A K; S, this. [The sent ence O E t ernal Mighty One . . . his (?) righteousness is rendered according
to the text of A K; the text of S here is not in order.]
14
So K; A, him; S omits.
So S; A K, the type (set) by.
The “kings” and “righ teous -dealin g rulers” referred to are, presumably, such as David, Hezekiah,
and Jo si ah , un der whose rule the claims of righteousness were recognised and the sovereignty of God, to
some extent, realised.
Lit. “for them” (= ? “ for themselves”)—from the righteous rulers s pr i n g sons who are faithless to
their heritage (such as Manasseh). The sentence is obscure, and the meaning uncertain.
S omits.
Omitted accidentally in S (by homoioteleuton, “brought up . . . brought up”).
Cf. 4 Ezra iv. 33 ff.
And He showed me a multitude of His people, an d said to me: “On their account through
four issues,1 as thou sawest, I shall be provoked by them, and in these2 my retribution for their
deeds shall be (accomplished). But in the fourth outgoing3 of a hundred years4 and one hour
of the age—the same is a hundred years5—it shall be in misfortune among the heathen [but
one hour in mercy and contumely, as among the heathen].”6
