"... The maternal metaphor is extended from the earth to the creation as a whole in a later series of analogies in 4 Ezra. After establishing that a woman’s womb cannot produce ten children at one time, Uriel concludes: “Even so I have made the earth a womb for those who from time to time come forth on it. For as an infant does not bring forth, and a woman who has become old does not bring forth any longer, so I have organized the world that I created” (5:48–49). Ezra then inquires if “our mother” is approaching old age (5:50). Uriel answers that just as “those born in the strength of youth are different from those born in the time of old age, when the womb is failing” (5:53), Ezra should consider that he and his contemporaries are smaller than people in the past, “and those who come after you will be smaller than you, as if born of a creation that already is aging and passing the strength of youth” (5:55). A similar formulation is found in 2 Baruch 85:10, “For the youth of the world has passed, and the strength of creation is already consumed.” In 4 Ezra, however, the decay or corruptibility of creation is likened not simply to the human life cycle, but specifically to declining female reproductive potential. Thus, when Paul imagines the creation as a woman in labor, it is not surprising that he should also describe it as “subjected to futility” (Rom 8:20) and hoping to be set free from its “slavery to corruption” (8:21, my translation) ..."