² But I tell you a parable, Ezra. Just as, when you ask the earth, it will tell you that it provides a large amount of clay from which earthenware is made but only a little dust from which gold comes, so is the course of the present world.^(A)

⁹ Now ask the earth, and she will tell you that it is she who ought to mourn over so many who have come into being upon her.^(A)