2 Esdras 9:10-18
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10 For such as in their life have received benefits, and have not known me;
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11 And they that have loathed my law, while they had yet liberty, and, when as yet place of repentance was open unto them, understood not, but despised it;
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12 The same must know it after death by pain.
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13 And therefore be thou not curious how the ungodly shall be punished, and when: but enquire how the righteous shall be saved, whose the world is, and for whom the world is created.
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14 Then answered I and said,
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15 I have said before, and now do speak, and will speak it also hereafter, that there be many more of them which perish, than of them which shall be saved:
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16 Like as a wave is greater than a drop.
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17 And he answered me, saying, Like as the field is, so is also the seed; as the flowers be, such are the colours also; such as the workman is, such also is the work; and as the husbandman ls himself, so is his husbandry also: for it was the time of the world.
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18 And now when I prepared the world, which was not yet made, even for them to dwell in that now live, no man spake against me.