52
"If you have just a few precious stones, will you add to them lead and clay?" Or that the glory of the Most High will defend those who have led a pure life, but we have walked in the most wicked ways?
50
For this reason the Most High has made not one world but two. And what good is it that an everlasting hope has been promised to us, but we have miserably failed?
51
For whereas you have said that the righteous are not many but few, while the ungodly abound, hear the explanation for this. Or that safe and healthful habitations have been reserved for us, but we have lived wickedly?
52
"If you have just a few precious stones, will you add to them lead and clay?" Or that the glory of the Most High will defend those who have led a pure life, but we have walked in the most wicked ways?
53
I said, "Lord, how could that be?" Or that a paradise shall be revealed, whose fruit remains unspoiled and in which are abundance and healing, but we shall not enter it,
54
And he said to me, "Not only that, but ask the earth and she will tell you; defer to her, and she will declare it to you. because we have lived in unseemly places?
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.