2 Esdras 4:39-41

Revised Standard Version

³⁹ And it is perhaps on account of us that the time of threshing is delayed for the righteous—on account of the sins of those who dwell on earth.”

⁴⁰ He answered me and said, “Go and ask a woman who is with child if, when her nine months have been completed, her womb can keep the child within her any longer.”

⁴¹ And I said, “No, lord, it cannot.”

And he said to me, “In Hades the chambers of the souls are like the womb.