The two companions spake before the Holy One, blessed be He: Sovereign of all the universe! There is before Thee respect for certain persons. This one was plundering with us on the mountains, and he is in the treasury of the living, whilst the other men are in the lowest Sheol. He said to them: This one repented in his lifetime, but ye have not repented. They said to Him: Give us the opportunity, and we will repent very sincerely. He said to them: Repentance is only possible until one's death.
A parable—To what is the matter comparable? To a man who wished to take a voyage at sea. If he did not take with him bread and water from an inhabited land, he will not find anything to eat or to drink on the sea. Again, || if a man wish to go to the end of the wilderness, unless he take from some inhabited place bread and water, he will not find anything to eat or to drink in the wilderness. Likewise, if a man did not repent in his lifetime, after his death he cannot repent. But (God) gives to a man according to his ways, as it is said, "I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings" (Jer. 17:10).