2 Esdras 9:18
King James VersionSource notes
“And now when I prepared the world, which was not yet made, even for them to dwell in that now live, no man spake against me.”
Context
15I have said before, and now do speak, and will speak it also hereafter, that there be many more of them which perish, than of them which shall be saved:
16Like as a wave is greater than a drop.
17And he answered me, saying, Like as the field is, so is also the seed; as the flowers be, such are the colours also; such as the workman is, such also is the work; and as the husbandman ls himself, so is his husbandry also: for it was the time of the world.
18And now when I prepared the world, which was not yet made, even for them to dwell in that now live, no man spake against me.
19For then every one obeyed: but now the manners of them which are created in this world that is made are corrupted by a perpetual seed, and by a law which is unsearchable rid themselves.
20So I considered the world, and, behold, there was peril because of the devices that were come into it.
21And I saw, and spared it greatly, and have kept me a grape of the cluster, and a plant of a great people.