2 Esdras 5:46-50 Common English Bible (CEB)

46. He said to me: "Ask a woman’s womb: If you bear ten children, why do you only do it over time? Ask it then to produce ten at once."

47. I said, "Surely it can’t, but only over time."

48. He said to me: "I also have given the earth’s womb for those who have been sown on it over time.

49. As an infant doesn’t give birth and a woman who has become old doesn’t give birth any longer, so I have set in order the world I created."

50. I asked: "Since you have given me opportunity, let me speak before you. Is our mother, of whom you spoke to me, still young? Or is she already approaching old age?"

2 Esdras 5