2 Esdras 4:38-51
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38 Then answered I and said, O Lord that bearest rule, even we all are full of impiety.
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39 And for our sakes peradventure it is that the floors of the righteous are not filled, because of the sins of them that dwell upon the earth.
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40 So he answered me, and said, Go thy way to a woman with child, and ask of her when she hath fulfilled her nine months, if her womb may keep the birth any longer within her.
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41 Then said I, No, Lord, that can she not. And he said unto me, In the grave the chambers of souls are like the womb of a woman:
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42 For like as a woman that travaileth maketh haste to escape the necessity of the travail: even so do these places haste to deliver those things that are committed unto them.
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43 From the beginning, look, what thou desirest to see, it shall be shewed thee.
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44 Then answered I and said, If I have found favour in thy sight, and if it be possible, and if I be meet therefore,
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45 Shew me then whether there be more to come than is past, or more past than is to come.
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46 What is past I know, but what is for to come I know not.
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47 And he said unto me, Stand up upon the right side, and I shall expound the similitude unto thee.
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48 So I stood, and saw, and, behold, an hot burning oven passed by before me: and it happened that when the flame was gone by I looked, and, behold, the smoke remained still.
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49 After this there passed by before me a watery cloud, and sent down much rain with a storm; and when the stormy rain was past, the drops remained still.
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50 Then said he unto me, Consider with thyself; as the rain is more than the drops, and as the fire is greater than the smoke; but the drops and the smoke remain behind: so the quantity which is past did more exceed.
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51 Then I prayed, and said, May I live, thinkest thou, until that time? or what shall happen in those days?