2 Esdras 4:17-19

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

¹⁷ likewise also the plan of the waves of the sea was in vain,^[a] for the sand stood firm and blocked it. ¹⁸ If now you were a judge between them, which would you undertake to justify, and which to condemn?’

¹⁹ I answered and said, ‘Each made a foolish plan, for the land has been assigned to the forest, and the locale of the sea a place to carry its waves.’