2 Esdras 4:49-51

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁴⁹ And after this a cloud full of water passed before me and poured down a heavy and violent rain, and when the violent rainstorm had passed, drops still remained in it.

⁵⁰ He said to me, “Consider it for yourself, for just as the rain is more than the drops and the fire is greater than the smoke, so the quantity that passed was far greater, but drops and smoke remained.”^(A)

⁵¹ Then I prayed and said, “Do you think that I shall live until those days? Or who will be alive in those days?”