2 Esdras 5:45-47

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

⁴⁵ I said, ‘How have you said to your servant that you^[a] will certainly give life at one time to your creation? If therefore all creatures will live at one time^[b] and the creation will sustain them, it might even now be able to support all of them present at one time.’

⁴⁶ He said to me, ‘Ask a woman’s womb, and say to it, “If you bear ten^[c] children, why one after another?” Request it therefore to produce ten at one time.’

⁴⁷ I said, ‘Of course it cannot, but only each in its own time.’