4 Esdras 3

²because I saw the desolation of Sion, & the aboundance of them that dwelt in Babylon.

³And my spirit was tossed exceedingly, & I began to speak to the highest timorous words,

⁴and said: O Lord dominator that spakest from the beginning, when thou didst plant the earth, and that alone, & didst rule over the people, .

⁵and gavest Adam a dead body, but that also was the work of thy hands, and didst breathe into him the spirit of life, and he was made to live before thee:

⁶and thou brought him into paradise, which thy right hand had planted, before the earth came.

⁷And him thou didst command to love thy way, and he transgressed it, and forthwith thou didst institute death in him, and in his posterity, & there were born nations, and tribes, & peoples, and kindreds, whereof there is no number.

⁸And every nation walked in their own will, & they did marvelous things before thee, and despised thy precepts.

⁹And again in time thou brought in the flood upon inhabitants of the world, and didst destroy them. .

¹⁰And there was made in every one of them, as unto Adam to die, so to them the flood.

¹¹But thou didst leave one of them, Noe with his house, and to him were all the just.

¹²And it came to pass, when they began to be multiplied, that dwelt upon the earth, and multiplied children and peoples and many nations: and they began again to do impiety more than the former.

¹³And it came to pass when they did iniquity before thee, thou didst choose thee a man of them, whose name was Abraham.

¹⁴And thou didst love him and to him only thou didst shew thy will. .

¹⁵And thou didst dispose unto him an everlasting testament, and toldst him that thou wouldst never forsake his seed. And thou gavest him Isaac, and to Isaac thou gavest Jacob and Esau.

¹⁶And Jacob thou didst sever to thyself, but Esau thou didst separate. And Jacob grew to a great multitude.

¹⁷And it came to pass when thou didst bring forth his seed out of Ægypt, thou brought it upon mount Sinai. .

¹⁸And thou didst bow the heavens, and fasten the earth, and didst shake the world, and madest the depths to tremble, and troubledst the world,

¹⁹and thy glory passed four gates of fire, and of earthquake, and wind, and frost, that thou mightst give a law to the seed of Jacob, and to the generation of Israel diligence.

²⁰And thou didst not take away from them a malignant heart, that thy law might bring forth fruit in them.

²¹For Adam the first bearing a vicious heart transgressed and was overcome, yea and all that were born of him.

²²And it was made a permanent

²³And the times passed, and the years were ended: and thou didst raise up unto thee a servant named David,

²⁴and spakest unto him to build a city of thy name, and to offer unto thee in it frankincense, and oblations.

²⁵And this was done many years, and they that inhabited the city forsook thee,

²⁶in all things as Adam and all his generations. For they also used a wicked heart.

²⁷And thou didst deliver thy city into the hands of thine enemies.

²⁸Why, do they better things, that inhabit Babylon? And for this shall she rule over Sion? .

²⁹It came to pass when I was come hither, & had seen the impieties that cannot be numbered: and my soul saw many offending this thirtieth year, and my heart was astonished:

³⁰because I saw how thou bearest with their sin, and didst spare them that did impiously, and didst destroy thine own people, and preserve thine enemies, and didst not signify it.

³¹I nothing remember how this way should be forsaken: doth Babylon better things than Sion?

³²Or hath any nation known thee beside Israel: or what tribes have believed thy testaments as Jacob?

³³Whose reward hath not appeared, nor their labour fructified. For passing through I passed among the nations, & I saw them abound, & not mindful of thy commandments.

³⁴Now therefore weigh our iniquities in a balance, and theirs that dwell in the world: and thy name shall not be found, but in Israel.

³⁵Or when have not they sinned in thy sight, that inhabit the earth? Or what nation hath so observed thy commandments?

³⁶These certes by their names thou shalt find to have kept thy commandments, but the nations thou shalt not find.