49
He answered me and said, "Listen to me, Ezra, and I will instruct you, and will admonish you yet again. For what good is it to us, if an eternal age has been promised to us, but we have done deeds that bring death?
47
And now I see that the world to come will bring delight to few, but torments to many. For what good is it to all that they live in sorrow now and expect punishment after death?
48
For an evil heart has grown up in us, which has alienated us from God, and has brought us into corruption and the ways of death, and has shown us the paths of perdition and removed us far from life -- and that not just a few of us but almost all who have been created!" O Adam, what have you done? For though it was you who sinned, the fall was not yours alone, but ours also who are your descendants.
49
He answered me and said, "Listen to me, Ezra, and I will instruct you, and will admonish you yet again. For what good is it to us, if an eternal age has been promised to us, but we have done deeds that bring death?
50
For this reason the Most High has made not one world but two. And what good is it that an everlasting hope has been promised to us, but we have miserably failed?
51
For whereas you have said that the righteous are not many but few, while the ungodly abound, hear the explanation for this. Or that safe and healthful habitations have been reserved for us, but we have lived wickedly?
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the 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.