2 Esdras 3

In the thirtieth year after ^athe ruin of the city I was in Babylon, and lay troubled upon my bed, and ^bmy thoughts came up over my heart: ²for I saw the desolation of Sion, and the wealth of them that dwelt at Babylon. ³And my spirit was sore moved, so that I began to speak words full of fear to the most High, and said,

⁴O Lord, ^bbwho bearest rule, thou spakest at the beginning, when thou didst plant the earth, and that ^cthyself alone, and commandedst the people, ⁵and ^dgavest a body unto Adam without soul, which was the workmanship of thine hands, and ^ddidst breathe into him the breath of life, and he was made living before thee. ⁶And ^ethou leddest him into paradise, which thy right hand had planted, before ever the earth came forward. ⁷And unto him thou gavest commandment to love thy way: which he transgressed, and immediately ^fthou appointedst death in him and in his generations, of whom came nations, tribes, people, and kindreds, out of number. ⁸And ^gevery people walked after their own will, and ^hdid wonderful things before thee, and despised thy commandments. ⁹And again in process of time ⁱthou broughtest the flood upon those that dwelt in the world, and destroyedst them. ¹⁰And it came to pass in every of them, that as death was to Adam, so was the flood to these. ¹¹Nevertheless one of them thou leftest, namely, ^kNoah with his household, of whom came all righteous men. ¹²And it happened, that when they that dwelt upon the earth began to multiply, and had gotten them many children, and were a great people, they began again to be more ungodly than the first. ¹³Now when they lived so wickedly before thee, ^lthou didst choose thee a man from among them, whose name was ^mAbraham. ¹⁴ⁿHim thou lovedst, and unto him only thou shewedst thy will: ¹⁵and ^omadest an everlasting covenant with him, promising him that thou wouldest never forsake his seed. ¹⁶And ^punto him thou gavest Isaac, and ^qunto Isaac also thou gavest Jacob and Esau. As for Jacob, ^rthou didst choose him to thee, and put by Esau: and so ^sJacob became a great multitude. ¹⁷And it came to pass, that when thou leddest his seed out of Egypt, ^tthou broughtest them up to the mount Sina. ¹⁸And ^ubowing the heavens, ^wthou didst set fast the earth, movedst the whole world, and ^xmadest the depths to tremble, and ^ytroubledst the men of that age. ¹⁹And ^zthy glory went through four gates, of fire, and of earthquake, and of wind, and of cold; that thou mightest give the law unto the seed of Jacob, and diligence unto the generation of Israel. ²⁰And yet tookest thou not away from them a wicked heart, that thy law might bring forth fruit in them. ²¹For ^athe first Adam bearing a wicked heart transgressed, and was overcome; and so be all they that are born of him. ²²Thus infirmity was made permanent; and ^bthe law also in the heart of the people with ^cthe malignity of the root; ^bso that the good departed away, and the evil abode still. ²³So the times passed away, and the years were brought to an end: then ^ddidst thou raise thee up a servant, called David: ^24ewhom thou commandedst to build a city unto thy name, and to offer incense and oblations unto thee therein. ²⁵When this was done many years, then they that inhabited the city forsook thee, ²⁶and in all things did even as Adam and all his generations had done: for they also had a wicked heart: ²⁷and so thou gavest thy city over into the hands of thine enemies. ^28fAre their deeds then any better that inhabit Babylon, that they should therefore have the dominion over Sion? ²⁹For when I came thither, and had seen impieties without number, then my soul saw many evildoers in ^gthis thirtieth year, so that ^hmy heart failed me. ³⁰For ⁱI have seen how thou sufferest them sinning, and hast spared wicked doers: and hast destroyed thy people, and hast preserved thine enemies, and hast not signified it. ³¹I do not remember how this way may be left: ^fAre they then of Babylon better than they of Sion? ³²Or is there any other people that knoweth thee besides Israel? or what generation hath so believed thy covenants as Jacob? ³³And yet their reward appeareth not, and their labour hath no fruit: for I have gone here and there through the heathen, and I see that they flow in wealth, and think not upon thy commandments. ³⁴Weigh thou therefore our wickedness now in the balance, and theirs also that dwell in the world; and so shall thy name no where be found but in Israel. ³⁵Or when was it that they which dwell upon the earth have not sinned in thy sight? or what people hath so kept thy commandments? ³⁶Thou shalt find that Israel by name hath kept thy precepts; but not the heathen.

IV.