2 Esdras 7:45-61
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Only a Few Will Be Saved
45 I answered and said, “O sovereign Lord, I said then and[a] I say now: Blessed are those who are alive and keep your commandments!(A) 46 But what of those for whom I prayed? For who among the living is there who has not sinned, or who is there among mortals who has not transgressed your covenant?(B) 47 And now I see that the world to come will bring delight to few but torments to many.(C) 48 For an evil heart has grown up in us that has alienated us from these and has brought us into corruption and the ways of death and has shown us the paths of perdition and removed us far from life—and that not merely for a few but for almost all who have been created.”(D)
49 He answered me and said, “Listen to me, Ezra,[b] and I will instruct you and will admonish you once more. 50 For this reason the Most High has made not one world but two.(E) 51 Inasmuch as you have said that the righteous are not many but few, while the ungodly abound, hear the explanation for this.
52 “If you have just a few precious stones, will you add to them lead and clay?”[c] 53 I said, “Lord, how could that be?” 54 And 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.(F) 55 Say to her, ‘You produce gold and silver and bronze and also iron and lead and clay,(G) 56 but silver is more abundant than gold, and bronze than silver, and iron than bronze, and lead than iron, and clay than lead.’ 57 Judge therefore which things are precious and desirable, those that are abundant or those that are rare?”
58 I said, “O sovereign Lord, what is plentiful is of less worth, for what is more rare is more precious.”
59 He answered me and said, “Consider within yourself what you have thought, for the person who has what is hard to get rejoices more than the person who has what is plentiful. 60 So also will be the judgment[d] that I have promised, for I will rejoice over the few who shall be saved because it is they who have made my glory to prevail now, and through them my name has now been honored.(H) 61 I will not grieve over the great number of those who perish, for it is they who are now like a mist and are similar to a flame and smoke—they are set on fire and burn hotly and are extinguished.”(I)
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