2 Esdras 4:22-24

Revised Standard Version

The New Age Will Make All Things Clear

²² Then I answered and said, “I beseech you, my lord, why^[a] have I been endowed with the power of understanding? ²³ For I did not wish to inquire about the ways above, but about those things which we daily experience: why Israel has been given over to the Gentiles as a reproach; why the people whom you loved has been given over to godless tribes, and the law of our fathers has been made of no effect and the written covenants no longer exist; ²⁴ and why we pass from the world like locusts, and our life is like a mist,^[b] and we are not worthy to obtain mercy.