2 Esdras 8:4

4 I replied: "Therefore, take delight in understanding, my soul, and drink your fill of knowledge.

2 Esdras 8:4 In-Context

2 But I will tell you a parable, Ezra. Just as when you ask the earth and it tells you that it provides much clay to make earthenware, but little dust from which gold comes to be, so the present world also works.

3 Many indeed are created, but few will be saved."

4 I replied: "Therefore, take delight in understanding, my soul, and drink your fill of knowledge.

5 You came into the world unwillingly, and against your will you depart, and you are given but a little while to live.

6 Lord above us—if you will permit your servants to pray before you—give us seed for the heart and cultivation for the understanding that there may be fruit from which every mortal who bears the form of a human being may live.

Footnotes

• [a] Syr and other versions; Lat dismiss
• [b] Syr and other versions; Lat let the soul feed on what it knows