14:1. “…having his Father’s name written in their foreheads….” (“Sealed Servants”) 2 Esdras 2:38. See above at 7:3.
2 Esdras 10:7-8: “For Zion, the mother of us all, is in deep grief and great affliction. It is most appropriate to mourn now, because we are all mourning, and to be sorrowful, because we are all sorrowing; you are sorrowing for one son, but we, the whole world, for our mother….”
2 Esdras 10:44: “This woman whom you saw, whom you now behold as an established city, is Zion.” Note 44: “Zion, i.e. the heavenly Jerusalem.” Note 46: A son, i.e., the earthly Jerusalem.”
2 Esdras 10:49: “And behold, you saw her likeness, how she mourned for her son…” Note 49: “The likeness, or model, of the earthly city is the heavenly Zion, who mourned for her son (the ruined earthly Jerusalem). For the idea of a heavenly counterpart or model, compare Ex.25.9,40; Heb. 8.5.” (OAA, p. 49).
2 Esdras 13:35-6: “But he will stand on the top of Mount Zion. And Zion will come and be made manifest to all people, prepared and built, as you saw the mountain carved out without hands….” (See 21:2 for further quote).
14:2. “…as the Voice of many waters….” (See 1:15.)
14:7. “Judgment to come”
2 Esdras 8:15-18: “And now I will speak out: About all mankind thou knowest best; but I will speak about thy people, for whom I am grieved, and about thy inheritance, for whom I lament, and about Israel, for whom I am sad, and about the seed of Jacob, for whom I am troubled. Therefore I will pray before thee for myself and for them, for I see the failings of us who dwell in the land, and I have heard of the swiftness of the judgment that is to come.”
14:8. ‘Babylon’
Metzger says: “The purpose of the original author of 2 Esdras was not only to denounce the wickedness of Rome (under the image of ‘Babylon‘) and to lament the sorrows that had befallen Jerusalem, but to wrestle with one of the most perplexing of all religious questions, … the reconciliation of God’s justice, wisdom, power, and goodness with the many evils that beset mankind.” (OAA, 23). As to the latter part of this statement, I agree: it was indeed to wrestle with this most perplexing problem. However, I disagree that the image of ‘Babylon‘ represented Rome. Rather, it represented, as it does in the Book of Revelation, the wicked and fallen earthly city called Jerusalem that had so persecuted the true Jerusalem, the Church of Jesus Christ.
Note on 2 Esdras 2:8: “By the name Assyria, Israel‘s ancient foe, the author refers cryptically to Rome” [? perhaps, rather, Jerusalem.]
2 Esdras 3:28-31: “Then I said in my heart, Are the deeds of those who inhabit Babylon any better? Is that why she has gained dominion over Zion? For when I came here I saw ungodly deeds without number, and my soul has seen many sinners during these thirty years….Are the deeds of Babylon better than those of Zion?” (OAA, p. 28). Note on 3:28: “Babylon, i.e. Rome (Rev. 14.8).” [But perhaps Ezra was in the large Jewish community of literal Babylon!?]
Metzger’s note #28: “Babylon, i.e. Rome (Rev. 14:8).” I disagree that Rome is indicated here. Rather, it is most likely that the prophet had fled from the destruction of Jerusalem to literal Babylon where there was a large and flourishing Jewish community that had not suffered the ravages of war like the Palestinian Jews. See Revelation 16:19 also, for reference on ‘Babylon’.
See also 17:4-5; 18:7-8 below for more referents from 2 Esdras on Babylon.
14:20. “…blood came out of the winepress….”
2 Esdras 15:35-6: “They shall dash against one another and shall pour out a heavy tempest upon the earth, and their own tempest; and there shall be blood from the sword as high as a horse’s belly and a man’s thigh and a camel’s hock.”
2 Maccabees 5:12-14: “And he commanded his soldiers to cut down relentlessly every one they met and to slay those who went into the houses. Then there was killing of young and old, destruction of boys, women, and children, and slaughter of virgins and infants. Within the total of three days eighty thousand were destroyed, forty thousand in hand-to-hand fighting; and as many were sold into slavery as were slain.”