1
He answered me and said, "The Most High made this world for the sake of many, but the world to come for the sake of only a few.
2
But I tell you a parable, Ezra. Just as, when you ask the earth, it will tell you that it provides a large amount of clay from which earthenware is made, but only a little dust from which gold comes, so is the course of the present world.
3
Many have been created, but only a few shall be saved."
4
I answered and said, "Then drink your fill of understanding, O my soul, and drink wisdom, O my heart.
5
For not of your own will did you come into the world, and against your will you depart, for you have been given only a short time to live.
6
O Lord above us, grant to your servant that we may pray before you, and give us a seed for our heart and cultivation of our understanding so that fruit may be produced, by which every mortal who bears the likeness of a human being may be able to live.
7
For you alone exist, and we are a work of your hands, as you have declared.
8
And because you give life to the body that is now fashioned in the womb, and furnish it with members, what you have created is preserved amid fire and water, and for nine months the womb endures your creature that has been created in it.
9
But that which keeps and that which is kept shall both be kept by your keeping. And when the womb gives up again what has been created in it,
10
you have commanded that from the members themselves (that is, from the breasts) milk, the fruit of the breasts, should be supplied,
11
so that what has been fashioned may be nourished for a time; and afterwards you will still guide it in your mercy.