38
Then answered I and said, "O Lord who bearest rule, even we all are full of impiety.
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And for our sakes perhaps it is that the floors of the righteous are not filled, because of the sins of those who dwell upon the earth."
40
So he answered me and said, "Go thy way to a woman with child, and ask of her if, when she hath fulfilled her nine months, her womb may keep the birth any longer within her."
41
Then said I, "No, lord, that can she not." And he said unto me, "In the grave the chambers of souls are like the womb of a woman;
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for as a woman who travaileth maketh haste to escape the necessity of the travail, even so do these places hasten to deliver those things that are committed unto them.
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From the beginning look what thou desirest to see; it shall be shown thee."
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Then answered I and said, "If I have found favor in thy sight, and if it be possible, and if I be meet therefore,
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show me then whether there be more to come than is past, or more past than is to come.
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What is past I know, but what is to come I know not."
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And he said unto me, "Stand up upon the right side, and I shall expound a similitude unto thee."
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So I stood and saw and, behold, a hot burning oven passed by before me; and it happened that when the flame had gone by I looked and, behold, the smoke remained still.