2 Esdras 7:41-54
-
41 Even so now, seeing corruption is grown up, and wickedness increased, and the righteous have prayed for the ungodly: wherefore shall it not be so now also?
-
42 He answered me, and said, This present life is not the end where much glory doth abide; therefore have they prayed for the weak.
-
43 But the day of doom shall be the end of this time, and the beginning of the immortality for to come, wherein corruption is past,
-
44 Intemperance is at an end, infidelity is cut off, righteousness is grown, and truth is sprung up.
-
45 Then shall no man be able to save him that is destroyed, nor to oppress him that hath gotten the victory.
-
46 I answered then and said, This is my first and last saying, that it had been better not to have given the earth unto Adam: or else, when it was given him, to have restrained him from sinning.
-
47 For what profit is it for men now in this present time to live in heaviness, and after death to look for punishment?
-
48 O thou Adam, what hast thou done? for though it was thou that sinned, thou art not fallen alone, but we all that come of thee.
-
49 For what profit is it unto us, if there be promised us an immortal time, whereas we have done the works that bring death?
-
50 And that there is promised us an everlasting hope, whereas ourselves being most wicked are made vain?
-
51 And that there are laid up for us dwellings of health and safety, whereas we have lived wickedly?
-
52 And that the glory of the most High is kept to defend them which have led a wary life, whereas we have walked in the most wicked ways of all?
-
53 And that there should be shewed a paradise, whose fruit endureth for ever, wherein is security and medicine, since we shall not enter into it?
-
54 (For we have walked in unpleasant places.)