2 Esdras 9:20-22

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

²⁰ So I considered my world and saw that it was lost. I saw that my earth was in peril because of the devices of those who^[a] had come into it.^{(A) 21} And I saw and spared some^[b] with great difficulty and saved for myself one grape out of a cluster and one plant out of a great forest.^{[c](B) 22} So let the multitude perish that has been born in vain, but let my grape and my plant be saved, because with much labor I have perfected them.