2 Ezra, let me give you an illustration. If you ask the earth, it will tell you that it produces a large amount of clay for pots but only a small amount of gold dust. And that's how it is with the present world:
3 many have been created, but only a few will be saved.”
4 I said to myself, “I must search for wisdom and try to understand.
5 I was brought into this world without my consent, and I will leave it against my will. God has given me only a few short years as my span of life.”
6 Then I prayed, “O Lord above, permit me, your humble servant, to offer this prayer: Sow a seed within us, and let it grow until it produces new hearts and minds, so that sinful humanity may have life.
7 For you alone are God, and you created all of us, as the scripture says.
8 You give life and provide arms and legs to the body formed in the womb, where it is kept safe in the elements of fire and water. The body which you form is carried in the womb for nine months,