2 Esdras 4:39-41

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

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.’

⁴⁰ He answered me and said, ‘Go and ask a pregnant woman whether, when her nine months have been completed, her womb can keep the foetus within her any longer.’

⁴¹ And I said, ‘No, lord, it cannot.’

He said to me, ‘In Hades the chambers of the souls are like the womb.