2 Esdras 5:42-44

Common English Bible

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?”

⁴⁴ He replied to me, “The creation can’t run ahead of its creator, nor can the world sustain all at one time those who are created in it.”