2 Esdras 8:7-9

Revised Standard Version

⁷ For thou alone dost exist, and we are a work of thy hands, as thou hast declared. ⁸ And because thou dost give life to the body which is now fashioned in the womb, and dost furnish it with members, what thou hast created is preserved in fire and water, and for nine months the womb^[a] which thou has formed endures thy creation which has been created in it. ⁹ But that which keeps and that which is kept shall both be kept by thy keeping.^[b] And when the womb gives up again what has been created in it,