2 Esdras 5:47-49

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

⁴⁷ I said, ‘Of course it cannot, but only each in its own time.’

⁴⁸ He said to me, ‘Even so I have given the womb of the earth to those who from time to time are sown in it. ⁴⁹ For as an infant does not bring forth, and a woman who has become old does not bring forth any longer, so I have made the same rule for the world that I created.’