7
And he said to me, "If I had asked you, "How many dwellings are in the heart of the sea, or how many streams are at the source of the deep, or how many streams are above the firmament, or which are the exits of Hades, or which are the entrances of paradise?'
8
perhaps you would have said to me, "I never went down into the deep, nor as yet into Hades, neither did I ever ascend into heaven.'
9
But now I have asked you only about fire and wind and the day—things that you have experienced and from which you cannot be separated, and you have given me no answer about them."
10
He said to me, "You cannot understand the things with which you have grown up;
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how then can your mind comprehend the way of the Most High? And how can one who is already worn out by the corrupt world understand incorruption?" When I heard this, I fell on my face
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and said to him, "It would have been better for us not to be here than to come here and live in ungodliness, and to suffer and not understand why."
13
He answered me and said, "I went into a forest of trees of the plain, and they made a plan
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and said, "Come, let us go and make war against the sea, so that it may recede before us and so that we may make for ourselves more forests.'
15
In like manner the waves of the sea also made a plan and said, "Come, let us go up and subdue the forest of the plain so that there also we may gain more territory for ourselves.'
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But the plan of the forest was in vain, for the fire came and consumed it;
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likewise also the plan of the waves of the sea was in vain, for the sand stood firm and blocked it.