2 Esdras 4:37-39

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

³⁷ and measured the times by measure, and numbered the times by number; and he will not move or arouse them until that measure is fulfilled.”’

³⁸ Then I answered and said, ‘But, O sovereign Lord, all of us also are full of ungodliness. ³⁹ It is perhaps on account of us that the time of threshing is delayed for the righteous—on account of the sins of those who inhabit the earth.’