Old Testament

New Testament

2 Esdras 4:4-9 Good News Bible Anglicised (GNBDC)

4. If you can explain even one of them to me, I will answer your questions about God's ways and teach you why the human race has an evil impulse.”

5. “I agree, sir,” I said.Then he said to me, “Good! How do you weigh out a kilogramme of fire? How do you measure a cubic metre of wind? How do you bring back a day that has passed?”

6. I answered, “Why do you ask me such questions? No human being could answer them.”

7. Then he said, “What if I had asked you how many dwelling places there are at the bottom of the sea? How many rivers flow into the waters beneath the earth? How many rivers are there above the dome of the sky? Where are the exits from the world of the dead? Where are the entrances to Paradise?

8. If I had asked you these questions, you might have answered, ‘I have never gone down into the waters beneath the earth, and I have never entered the world of the dead. I have never gone up to heaven.’

9. But all I have asked you about is fire, wind, and the day that has just passed — things that you have experienced. Yet you have given me no answer.

Read complete chapter 2 Esdras 4