2 Esdras 4:37-39

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

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.’ ”^(A)

³⁸ Then I answered and said, “But, O sovereign Lord, all of us also are full of ungodliness.^{(B) 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.”