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Then I said, "Yes, my lord." And he replied to me, "I have been sent to show you three ways, and to put before you three problems.
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If you can solve one of them for me, I also will show you the way you desire to see, and will teach you why the heart is evil."
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I said, "Speak on, my lord." And he said to me, "Go, weigh for me the weight of fire, or measure for me a measure of wind, or call back for me the day that is past."
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I answered and said, "Who of those that have been born can do this, that you ask me concerning these things?"
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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 hell, or which are the entrances of paradise?'
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Perhaps you would have said to me, `I never went down into the deep, nor as yet into hell, neither did I ever ascend into heaven.'
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But now I have asked you only about fire and wind and the day, things through which you have passed and without which you cannot exist, and you have given me no answer about them!"
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And 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 be better for us not to be here than to come here and live in ungodliness, and to suffer and not understand why."
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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, that it may recede before us, and that we may make for ourselves more forests.'
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And 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, for the sand stood firm and stopped them.
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If now you were a judge between them, which would you undertake to justify, and which to condemn?"
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I answered and said, "Each has made a foolish plan, for the land is assigned to the forest, and to the sea is assigned a place to carry its waves."
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He answered me and said, "You have judged rightly, but why have you not judged so in your own case?
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For as the land is assigned to the forest and the sea to its waves, so also those who dwell upon earth can understand only what is on the earth, and he who is above the heavens can understand what is above the height of the heavens."
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Then I answered and said, "I beseech you, my lord, why have I been endowed with the power of understanding?
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For I did not wish to inquire about the ways above, but about those things which we daily experience: why Israel has been given over to the Gentiles as a reproach; why the people whom you loved has been given over to godless tribes, and the law of our fathers has been made of no effect and the written covenants no longer exist;
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and why we pass from the world like locusts, and our life is like a mist, and we are not worthy to obtain mercy.
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But what will he do for his name, by which we are called? It is about these things that I have asked."
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He answered me and said, "If you are alive, you will see, and if you live long, you will often marvel, because the age is hastening swiftly to its end.
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For it will not be able to bring the things that have been promised to the righteous in their appointed times, because this age is full of sadness and infirmities.
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For the evil about which you ask me has been sown, but the harvest of it has not yet come.
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If therefore that which has been sown is not reaped, and if the place where the evil has been sown does not pass away, the field where the good has been sown will not come.
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For a grain of evil seed was sown in Adam's heart from the beginning, and how much ungodliness it has produced until now, and will produce until the time of threshing comes!
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Consider now for yourself how much fruit of ungodliness a grain of evil seed has produced.
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When heads of grain without number are sown, how great a threshing floor they will fill!"
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Then I answered and said, "How long and when will these things be? Why are our years few and evil?"