2 Esdras 4:33-43

Common English Bible

³³ I answered: “Where and when will these things be? Why are our years few and evil?”

³⁴ He answered: “Don’t be in a greater hurry than the Most High. You hurry only for yourself, but the Most High on behalf of many. ³⁵ Didn’t the souls of the just in their resting places ask about these things, saying, ‘How long are we to remain here,^[a] and when will the harvest of our reward come?’ ³⁶ Then Jeremiel the angel answered them, ‘When the number of those like you^[b] is complete, for God has weighed the world in a balance ³⁷ and measured the times by measure and numbered the times by number, and he won’t move or arouse himself until the prescribed measure is fulfilled.’”

³⁸ I answered: “Supreme Lord, we all are also full of impiety. ³⁹ Is it perhaps because of us, and because of the sins of those who live on earth, that the harvest of the just is delayed?”

⁴⁰ He answered me, “Go ask a pregnant woman whether her womb can keep the baby inside her when she has completed her nine months.”

⁴¹ I said, “It can’t, Lord.”

He said to me: “The underworld^[c] and the resting places of the souls are like the womb. ⁴² As the one who gives birth hastens to escape the distress of giving birth, so these also hasten to give back those things that were entrusted to them from the beginning. ⁴³ Then you will be shown the things you want to see.”