2 Esdras 5:39-51
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39 As for me, I am unwise: how may I then speak of these things whereof thou askest me?
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40 Then said he unto me, Like as thou canst do none of these things that I have spoken of, even so canst thou not find out my judgment, or in the end the love that I have promised unto my people.
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41 And I said, Behold, O Lord, yet art thou nigh unto them that be reserved till the end: and what shall they do that have been before me, or we that be now, or they that shall come after us?
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42 And he said unto me, I will liken my judgment unto a ring: like as there is no slackness of the last, even so there is no swiftness of the first.
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43 So I answered and said, Couldest thou not make those that have been made, and be now, and that are for to come, at once; that thou mightest shew thy judgment the sooner?
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44 Then answered he me, and said, The creature may not haste above the maker; neither may the world hold them at once that shall be created therein.
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45 And I said, As thou hast said unto thy servant, that thou, which givest life to all, hast given life at once to the creature that thou hast created, and the creature bare it: even so it might now also bear them that now be present at once.
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46 And he said unto me, Ask the womb of a woman, and say unto her, If thou bringest forth children, why dost thou it not together, but one after another? pray her therefore to bring forth ten children at once.
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47 And I said, She cannot: but must do it by distance of time.
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48 Then said he unto me, Even so have I given the womb of the earth to those that be sown in it in their times.
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49 For like as a young child may not bring forth the things that belong to the aged, even so have I disposed the world which I created.
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50 And I asked, and said, Seeing thou hast now given me the way, I will proceed to speak before thee: for our mother, of whom thou hast told me that she is young, draweth now nigh unto age.
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51 He answered me, and said, Ask a woman that beareth children, and she shall tell thee.