2 Esdras 9:20-22

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

²⁰ So I considered my world, and saw that it was lost. I saw that my earth was in peril because of the devices of those who^[a] had come into it. ²¹ And I saw and spared some^[b] with great difficulty, and saved for myself one grape out of a cluster, and one plant out of a great forest.^{[c] 22} So let the multitude perish that has been born in vain, but let my grape and my plant be saved, because with much labour I have perfected them.