2 Esdras 5:47

47 I said, "Surely it can't, but only over time."

2 Esdras 5:47 In-Context

45 I said: "How then could you say to your servant that you will certainly give life to the creation created by you at one time? If, therefore, they will live at one time and the creation will sustain them then, couldn't it sustain them at one time now?"

46 He said to me: "Ask a woman's womb: If you bear ten children, why do you only do it over time? Ask it then to produce ten at once."

47 I said, "Surely it can't, but only over time."

48 He said to me: "I also have given the earth's womb for those who have been sown on it over time.

49 As an infant doesn't give birth and a woman who has become old doesn't give birth any longer, so I have set in order the world I created."