30. A grain of evil seed was sown in the heart of Adam from the beginning, and how much godlessness it has produced until now and will produce until the time for threshing comes!
31. Calculate for yourself how much godless fruit the grain of evil seed will have produced!
32. When the innumerable ears of grain are sown, how great a threshing floor will they begin to make!"
33. I answered: "Where and when will these things be? Why are our years few and evil?"
34. He answered: "Don’t be in a greater hurry than the Most High. You hurry only for yourself, but the Most High on behalf of many.
35. Didn’t the souls of the just in their resting places ask about these things, saying, ‘How long are we to remain here, and when will the harvest of our reward come?’
36. Then Jeremiel the angel answered them, ‘When the number of those like you is complete, for God has weighed the world in a balance
37. and measured the times by measure and numbered the times by number, and he won’t move or arouse himself until the prescribed measure is fulfilled.’"
38. I answered: "Supreme Lord, we all are also full of impiety.
39. Is it perhaps because of us, and because of the sins of those who live on earth, that the harvest of the just is delayed?"
40. He answered me, "Go ask a pregnant woman whether her womb can keep the baby inside her when she has completed her nine months."
41. I said, "It can’t, Lord."He said to me: "The underworld and the resting places of the souls are like the womb.
42. As the one who gives birth hastens to escape the distress of giving birth, so these also hasten to give back those things that were entrusted to them from the beginning.
43. Then you will be shown the things you want to see."
44. I answered, "If I have found favor with you, if it is possible, if I am worthy,
45. show me this also, whether there is more time yet to come than has past or whether the greater times have passed over us,
46. for I know what has passed, but I don’t know what is to come."
47. He answered me: "Stand off to the right, and I will show you the interpretation of a parable."
48. I stood aside and looked, and right there a burning furnace passed before me, and when the flame had passed, I looked and the smoke remained.