2 Esdras 4:45-52

45 show me this also: whether more time is to come than has passed, or whether for us the greater part has gone by.
46 For I know what has gone by, but I do not know what is to come."
47 And he said to me, "Stand at my right side, and I will show you the interpretation of a parable."
48 So I stood and looked, and lo, a flaming furnace passed by before me, and when the flame had gone by I looked, and lo, the smoke remained.
49 And after this a cloud full of water passed before me and poured down a heavy and violent rain, and when the violent rainstorm had passed, drops still remained in the cloud.
50 He said to me, "Consider it for yourself; for just as the rain is more than the drops, and the fire is greater than the smoke, so the quantity that passed was far greater; but drops and smoke remained."
51 Then I prayed and said, "Do you think that I shall live until those days? Or who will be alive in those days?"
52 He answered me and said, "Concerning the signs about which you ask me, I can tell you in part; but I was not sent to tell you concerning your life, for I do not know.

Footnotes 1

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.