2 Esdras 5:41-43

Common English Bible

⁴¹ I said: “Look, Lord, you’ve made promises concerning these who are alive at the end, but what will those who are before us do, or we, or those who come after us?”

⁴² He said to me, “I will compare my judgment to a crown.^[a] Just as there is no delay for those who come last, so there is no rushing for those who come before.”

⁴³ I replied, “Couldn’t you have created all at once those who have been and those who are and those who will be so that you might show your judgment more quickly?”