2 Esdras 4:34-36

Revised Standard Version

³⁴ He answered me and said, “You do not hasten faster than the Most High, for your haste is for yourself,^[a] but the Highest hastens on behalf of many. ³⁵ Did not the souls of the righteous in their chambers ask about these matters, saying, ‘How long are we to remain here?^[b] And when will come the harvest of our reward?’ ³⁶ And Jeremiel the archangel answered them and said, ‘When the number of those like yourselves is completed;^[c] for he has weighed the age in the balance,