2 Esdras 4:5-7

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁵ I said, “Speak, my lord.”

And he said to me, “Go, weigh for me the weight of fire, or measure for me a blast^[a] of wind, or call back for me the day that is past.”^(A)

⁶ I answered and said, “Who of those that have been born can do that, that you should ask me about such things?”

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 Hades, or which are the entrances^[b] of paradise?’^(B)