2 Esdras 7:59-61

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁵⁹ He answered me and said, “Consider within yourself what you have thought, for the person who has what is hard to get rejoices more than the person who has what is plentiful. ⁶⁰ So also will be the judgment^[a] that I have promised, for I will rejoice over the few who shall be saved because it is they who have made my glory to prevail now, and through them my name has now been honored.^{(A) 61} I will not grieve over the great number of those who perish, for it is they who are now like a mist and are similar to a flame and smoke—they are set on fire and burn hotly and are extinguished.”^(B)