Recension B
1 He saw the angel of God and asked concerning the righteous and sinners when they go forth from this world.
2 The angel said, “For the righteous there is light and rest, eternal life, but for the sinners, unending tortures”.
3 Ezra said, “If that is so, then blessed are the animals and the beasts of the field and the creeping things and the birds of heaven who do not await resurrection and judgment.”
4 The angel said, “You sin in saying this, for God has made every'thing for the sake of man and man for the sake of God. And those things in which God finds man, by those is he judged.”
5 Ezra said, “When you take the souls of men, where will you bring them?”
6 The angel said, “I bring the souls of the righteous to worship God and establish them in the upper atmosphere, and the souls of the sinners are seized by the demons who are imprisoned in the atmosphere.”
7 And Ezra said, “And when will the soul which is seized by Satan be delivered?”
8 The angel said, “Whent the soul has someone as a good memorial in this world, (this) one releases it from Satan through prayer and (acts of) mercy.”
9 Ezra said, “By what means?” The angel said, “By prayer, by (acts of) mercy, and by sacrifices.” (Ezra said)
10 “If the sinner's soul has no good memorial, which helps him, what will happen to him?”
11 The angel said to him, “Such a one is in the hand of Satan until the coming of Christ, when the trumpet of Gabriel sounds.
12 Then the souls are freed from the hands of Satan and soar down from the atmosphere.
13 And they come and are united each with its body which had been retumed to dust and which the sound of the trumpet had built and aroused and renewed.
14 And it raises (it) up before Christ our God who comes to judge (those on) the earth, that is the righteous and the wicked, and requites each for his deeds.” Through the petition of your divinely narrated prophets, have pity upon the readers of this writing.