2 Esdras 4:7-9

Revised Standard Version

⁷ And he said to me, “If I had asked you, ‘How many dwellings are in the heart of the sea, or how many streams are at the source of the deep, or how many streams are above the firmament, or which are the exits of hell, or which are the entrances^[a] of paradise?’ ⁸ Perhaps you would have said to me, ‘I never went down into the deep, nor as yet into hell, neither did I ever ascend into heaven.’ ⁹ But now I have asked you only about fire and wind and the day, things through which you have passed and without which you cannot exist,^[b] and you have given me no answer about them!”