2 Esdras 7:61-63

Revised Standard Version

⁶¹ And I will not grieve over the multitude of those who perish; for it is they who are now like a mist, and are similar to a flame and smoke—they are set on fire and burn hotly, and are extinguished.”

Lamentation of Ezra, with Response

⁶² I replied and said, “O earth, what have you brought forth, if the mind is made out of the dust like the other created things! ⁶³ For it would have been better if the dust itself had not been born, so that the mind might not have been made from it.