2 Esdras 3:22-35

1. 22 Thus infirmity was made permanent; and the law (also) in the heart of the people with the malignity of the root; so that the good departed away, and the evil abode still.

2. 23 So the times passed away, and the years were brought to an end: then didst thou raise thee up a servant, called David:

3. 24 Whom thou commandedst to build a city unto thy name, and to offer incense and oblations unto thee therein.

4. 25 When this was done many years, then they that inhabited the city forsook thee,

5. 26 And in all things did even as Adam and all his generations had done: for they also had a wicked heart:

6. 27 And so thou gavest thy city over into the hands of thine enemies.

7. 28 Are their deeds then any better that inhabit Babylon, that they should therefore have the dominion over Sion?

8. 29 For when I came thither, and had seen impieties without number, then my soul saw many evildoers in this thirtieth year, so that my heart failed me.

9. 30 For I 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.

10. 31 I do not remember how this way may be left: Are they then of Babylon better than they of Sion?

11. 32 Or is there any other people that knoweth thee beside Israel? or what generation hath so believed thy covenants as Jacob?

12. 33 And 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.

13. 34 Weigh thou therefore our wickedness now in the balance, and their's also that dwell the world; and so shall thy name no where be found but in Israel.

14. 35 Or when was it that they which dwell upon the earth have not sinned in thy sight? or what people have so kept thy commandments?

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