32. and said to me, Hear me, and I will instruct you; hearken to me, and I shall tell you more.
33. And I said, Speak on, my Lord. Then said he to me, You are sore troubled in mind for Israel’s sake: love you that people better than he that made them?
34. And I said, No, Lord: but of very grief have I spoken: for my reins torment me every hour, while I labor to comprehend the way of the Most High, and to seek out part of his judgement.
35. And he said to me, You can not. And I said, Wherefore, Lord, or whereunto was I born? or why was not my mother’s womb then my grave, that I might not have seen the travail of Jacob, and the wearisome toil of the stock of Israel?
36. And he said to me, Number me them that are not yet come, gather me together the drops that are scattered abroad, make me the flowers green again that are withered,
37. open me the chambers that are closed, and bring me forth the winds that in them are shut up, or show me the image of a voice: and then I will declare to you the travail that you asked to see.
38. And I said, O Lord that bear rule, who may know these things, but he that has not his dwelling with men?
39. As for me, I am unwise: how may I then speak of these things whereof you asked me?
40. Then said he to me, Like as you can do none of these things that I have spoken of, even so can you not find out my judgement, or the end of the love that I have promised to my people.
41. And I said, But, behold, O Lord, you have made the promise to them that be in the end: and what shall they do that have been before us, or we that be now, or they that shall come after us?
42. And he said to me, I will liken my judgement to a ring: like as there is no slackness of them that be last, even so there is no swiftness of them that be first.
43. So I answered and said, Couldest you not make them to be at once that have been made, and that be now, and that are for to come; that you might show your judgment the sooner?
44. Then answered he me, and said, The creature may not haste above the creator; neither may the world hold them at once that shall be created therein.
45. And I said, How have you said to your servant, that you will surely make alive at once the creature that you have created? If therefore they shall be alive at once, and the creature shall sustain them: even so it might now also support them to be present at once.
46. And he said to me, Ask the womb of a woman, and say to her, If you bring forth ten children, why do you it at several times? pray her therefore to bring forth ten children at once.
47. And I said, she can’t: but must do it by distance of time.
48. Then said he to me, Even so have I given the womb of the earth to those that be sown therein in their several times.