2 Esdras 4:40

40 He answered me, "Go ask a pregnant woman whether her womb can keep the baby inside her when she has completed her nine months."

2 Esdras 4:40 In-Context

38 I answered: "Supreme Lord, we all are also full of impiety.

39 Is it perhaps because of us, and because of the sins of those who live on earth, that the harvest of the just is delayed?"

40 He answered me, "Go ask a pregnant woman whether her womb can keep the baby inside her when she has completed her nine months."

41 I said, "It can't, Lord." He said to me: "The underworld and the resting places of the souls are like the womb.

42 As the one who gives birth hastens to escape the distress of giving birth, so these also hasten to give back those things that were entrusted to them from the beginning.