2 Esdras 8:1-3

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

8 He answered me and said, ‘The Most High made this world for the sake of many, but the world to come for the sake of only a few. ² But I tell you a parable, Ezra. Just as, when you ask the earth, it will tell you that it provides a large amount of clay from which earthenware is made, but only a little dust from which gold comes, so is the course of the present world. ³ Many have been created, but only a few shall be saved.’