2 Esdras 7:132-8:3
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Ezra Appeals to God’s Mercy
132 I answered and said, “I know, O Lord, that the Most High is now called merciful because he has mercy on those who have not yet come into the world; 133 and gracious because he is gracious to those who turn in repentance to his law; 134 and patient because he shows patience toward those who have sinned, since they are his own creatures;(A) 135 and bountiful because he would rather give than take away;[a] 136 and abundant in compassion because he makes his compassions abound more and more to those now living and to those who are gone and to those yet to come— 137 for if he did not make them abound, the world with those who inhabit it would not have life— 138 and he is called the giver because if he did not give out of his goodness so that those who have committed iniquities might be relieved of them, not one ten-thousandth of humankind could have life;(B) 139 and the judge because if he did not pardon those who were created by his word and blot out the multitude of their sins,[b](C) 140 there would probably be left only very few of the innumerable multitude.”
8 He answered me and said, “The Most High made this world for the sake of many but the world to come for the sake of only a few.(D) 2 But I tell you a parable, Ezra. Just as, when you ask the earth, it will tell you that it provides a large amount of clay from which earthenware is made but only a little dust from which gold comes, so is the course of the present world.(E) 3 Many have been created, but only a few shall be saved.”(F)
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