45 And I said, “How have you said to your servant, that you will surely make alive at once the creature that you have created? If therefore they will be alive at once, and the creation will sustain them, even so it might now also support them to be present at once.” (WEB) 46 And he said to me, “Ask the womb of a woman, and say to her, ‘If you bear ten children, why do you it at different times? Ask her therefore to give birth to ten children at once.” (WEB) 47 I said, “She can’t, but must do it each in their own time.” (WEB) 48 Then said he to me, “Even so, I have given the womb of the earth to those who are sown in it in their own times. (WEB) 49 For just as a young child may not give birth, neither she who has grown old any more, even so have I organized the world which I created.” (WEB) 50 I asked, “Seeing that you have now shown me the way, I will speak before you. Is our mother, of whom you have told me, still young? Or does she now draw near to old age?” (WEB) 51 He answered me, “Ask a woman who bears children, and she will tell you. (WEB) 52 Say to her, ‘Why aren’t they whom you have now brought forth like those who were before, but smaller in stature?’ (WEB) 53 She also will answer you, ‘Those who are born in the strength of youth are different from those who are born in the time of old age, when the womb fails.’ (WEB) 54 Consider therefore you also, how you are shorter than those who were before you. (WEB) 55 So are those who come after you smaller than you, as born of the creature which now begins to be old, and is past the strength of youth.” (WEB)
2 Esdras 5:45–55
Semantically similar passages
2 Esdras 4:39–41
39 Perhaps it is for our sakes that the threshing time of the righteous is kept back—because of the sins of those who dwell on the earth.” (WEB) 40 So he answered me, “Go your way to a woman with child, and ask of her when she has fulfilled her nine months, if her womb ma… (WEB)
2 Esdras 10:13–15
13 but it is with the earth after the manner of the earth. The multitude present in it has gone as it came. (WEB) 14 Then say I to you, ‘Just as you have brought forth with sorrow, even so the earth also has given her fruit, namely, people, ever since the beginning to him… (WEB)
2 Maccabees 7:21–23
21 She exhorted each one of them in the language of their fathers, filled with a noble spirit and stirring up her woman’s thoughts with manly courage, saying to them, (WEB) 22 “I don’t know how you came into my womb. It wasn’t I who gave you your spirit and your life. It… (WEB) 23 … (WEB)
2 Esdras 8:8–10
8 Because you give life to the body that is now fashioned in the womb, and give it members, your creature is preserved in fire and water, and your workmanship endures nine months as your creation which is created in it. (WEB) 9 But that which keeps and that which is kep… (WEB)
2 Esdras 7:53–55
53 I said, “Lord, how could that be?” (WEB) 54 He said to me, “Not only that, but ask the earth, and she will tell you. Defer to her, and she will declare it to you. (WEB) 55 Say to her, ‘You produce gold, silver, and brass, and also iron, lead, and clay; (WEB)
2 Esdras 8:45–47
45 Don’t be angry with us, but spare your people and have mercy upon your inheritance, for you have mercy upon your own creation.” (WEB) 46 Then he answered me, “Things present are for those who live now, and things to come for those who will live hereafter. (WEB) 47 For you come f… (WEB)
2 Esdras 5:40–42
40 Then said he to me, “Just as you can do none of these things that I have spoken of, even so you can’t find out my judgment, or the end of the love that I have promised to my people.” (WEB) 41 I said, “But, behold, O Lord, you have made the promise to those who are aliv… (WEB)
Job 38:20–22
20 so you can lead it back to its border? Do you know the paths to its home? 21 Surely you know, for you were already born! And the number of your days is great! 22 Have you entered the storehouses of snow or observed the storehouses of hail,
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