2 Esdras 7:18

18 The just then can tolerate the narrow, hoping for the spacious, but those who have acted impiously endure the narrow and won't see the spacious."

2 Esdras 7:18 In-Context

16 Why haven't you focused your mind on what is still to come, rather than on what is present?"

17 I answered: "Supreme Lord, you ordained in your Law that the just will inherit these things, but the impious will perish.

18 The just then can tolerate the narrow, hoping for the spacious, but those who have acted impiously endure the narrow and won't see the spacious."

19 He said to me: “You aren't a higher judge than God, nor more intelligent than the Most High.

20 Better that many of those now alive should perish than that the Law of God, which is laid out before them, be disregarded.