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 few.
2
But I tell you a parable, Ezra. Just as, when you ask the earth, it will tell you that it provides very much 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 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 who are over us, grant to thy servant that we may pray before thee, and give us 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 thou alone dost exist, and we are a work of thy hands, as thou hast declared.
8
And because thou dost give life to the body which is now fashioned in the womb, and dost furnish it with members, what thou hast created is preserved in fire and water, and for nine months the womb which thou has formed endures thy creation which has been created in it.