2 Esdras 9:17-19

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹⁷ He answered me and said, “As is the field, so is the seed, and as are the flowers, so are the colors, and as is the work, so is the product, and as is the farmer, so is the threshing floor.^{(A) 18} For there was a time in this age when I was preparing for those who now exist, before the world was made for them to live in, and no one opposed me then, for no one existed, ¹⁹ but now those who have been created in this world, which is supplied both with an unfailing table and an inexhaustible pasture,^[a] have become corrupt in their ways.^(B)