2 Esdras 5:43-45

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁴³ Then I answered and said, “Could you not have created at one time those who have been and those who are and those who will be, so that you might show your judgment the sooner?”^(A)

⁴⁴ He replied to me and said, “The creation cannot move faster than the Creator, nor can the world hold at one time those who have been created in it.”^(B)

⁴⁵ I said, “How have you said to your servant that you^[a] will certainly give life at one time to your creation? If therefore all creatures will live at one time^[b] and the creation will sustain them, it might even now be able to support all of them present at one time.”