31 Now when I’d spoken these words, the angel that came to me the night before was sent to me, 32 and said to me, “Hear me, and I’ll instruct you. Listen to me, and I’ll tell you more.”

33 I said, “Speak on, my master.”

Then he said to me, “You’re very troubled in mind for Yisrael’s (Israel) sake. Do you love that people more than he who made them?”

34 I said, “No, master; but I’ve spoken out of grief; for my heart is in agony every hour while I labour to comprehend the way of the Most High, and to seek out part of his judgement.”

35 He said to me, “You can’t.”

And I said, “Why, master? Why was I born? Why wasn’t my mother’s womb my grave, that I might not have seen the travail of Ya’akov (Jacob), and the wearisome toil of Yisrael’s people?”

36 He said to me, “Count for me those who haven’t yet come. Gather together for me the drops that are scattered abroad, and make the withered flowers green again for me. 37 Open for me the chambers that are closed, and bring out the winds for me that are shut up in them. Or show me the image of a voice. Then I’ll declare to you the travail that you asked to see.”

38 And I said, “O sovereign master, who may know these things except he who doesn’t have his dwelling with men? 39 As for me, I lack wisdom. How can I then speak of these things you asked me about?”

40 Then he said to me, “Just as you can do none of these things that I’ve spoken of, even so you can’t find out my judgement, or the end of the love that I’ve promised to my people.”

41 I said, “But Oh master, you’ve made the promise to those who are alive at the end. What should they do who have been before us, or we ourselves, or those who’ll come after us?”

42 He said to me, “I’ll compare my judgement to a ring. Just as there’s no slowness of those who are last, even so there’s no swiftness of those who be first.”

43 So I answered, “Couldn’t you make them all at once that have been made, and that are now, and that are yet to come, that you might show your judgement sooner?”

44 Then he answered me, “The creature may not move faster than the creator, nor can the world hold them at once who’ll be created in it.”

45 And I said, “How have you said to your servant, that you[fn] will surely make alive at once the creature that you’ve created? If[fn] therefore they’ll be alive at once, and the creation will sustain them, even so it might now also support them to be present at once.”

46 And he said to me, “Ask the womb of a woman, and say to her, ‘If you bear ten children, why do you it at different times? Ask her therefore to give birth to ten children at once.”

47 I said, “She can’t, but must do it each in their own time.”

48 Then he said to me, “Even so, I’ve given the womb of the earth to those who are sown in it in their own times. 49 Because just as a young child may not give birth, neither she who’s grown old any more, even so have I organised the world which I created.”

50 I asked, “Seeing that you’ve now shown me the way, I’ll speak before you. Is our mother, of whom you’ve told me, still young? Or does she now draw near to old age?”

51 He answered me, “Ask a woman who bears children, and she’ll tell you. 52 Say to her, ‘Why aren’t they whom you’ve now brought forth like those who were before, but smaller in stature?’ 53 She also will answer you, ‘Those who are born in the strength of youth are different from those who are born in the time of old age, when the womb fails.’ 54 Consider therefore you also, how you’re shorter than those who were before you. 55 So are those who come after you smaller than you, as born of the creature which now begins to be old, and is past the strength of youth.”

56 Then I said, “master, I implore you, if I’ve found favour in your sight, show your servant by whom you visit your creation.”

6 He said to me, “In the beginning, when the earth was made, before the portals of the world were fixed and before the gatherings of the winds blew, 2 before the voices of the thunder sounded and before the flashes of the lightning shone, before the foundations of paradise were laid, 3 before the fair flowers were seen, before the powers of the earthquake were established, before the innumerable army of angels were gathered together, 4 before the heights of the air were lifted up, before the measures of the firmament were named, before the footstool of Tsiyon (Zion) was[fn] established, 5 before the present years were reckoned, before the imaginations of those who now sin were estranged, and before they were sealed who’ve gathered faith for a treasure—6 then I considered these things, and they all were made through me alone, and not through another; just as by me also they’ll be ended, and not by another.”