2 Esdras 4:37-39

Revised Standard Version

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, “O sovereign Lord, but all of us also are full of ungodliness. ³⁹ And 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 dwell on earth.”