ttered abroad,
make me the flowers green again that are withered,

2 Esdr 5:37
Open me the places that are closed, and bring me forth the
winds that in them are shut up, shew me the image of a voice:
and then I will declare to thee the thing that thou labourest to
know.

2 Esdr 5:38
And I said, O Lord that bearest rule, who may know these
things, but he that hath not his dwelling with men?

2 Esdr 5:39
As for me, I am unwise: how may I then speak of these things
whereof thou askest me?

2 Esdr 5:40
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.

2 Esdr 5:41
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?

2 Esdr 5:42
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.

2 Esdr 5:43
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?

2 Esdr 5:44
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.

2 Esdr 5:45
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.

2 Esdr 5:46
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.

2 Esdr 5:47
And I said, She cannot: but must do it by distance of time.

2 Esdr 5:48
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.

2 Esdr 5:49
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.

2 Esdr 5:50
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.

2 Esdr 5:51