Ezra Sutuel

In the thirtieth year after the destruction of the city, I was in Babylon, I, Salathiel, who am also called Ezra.

I was troubled as I lay on my bed, and my thoughts came up over my heart,

because I saw the desolation of Zion and the wealth of those who dwelt in Babylon.

And my spirit was greatly amazed, and I began to speak words of fear to the Most High, and said,

O Lord, my Lord, did you not speak from the beginning, when you formed the earth, and that yourself alone, and did command the dust?

And it gave you Adam, a dead body, and he was the formation of your hands, and you did breathe into him the breath of life, and he was living before you.

And you led him into Paradise, which your right hand had planted before ever the earth came.

And to him you gave the commandment, and he transgressed it; and immediately you decreed death upon him and upon his generations.

From him were born peoples, tribes, tongues, and clans without number.

And all peoples followed their own works, and dealt wickedly and were ungodly before you, and you did not hinder them.

But again in due time you brought the flood upon the earth and upon the inhabitants of the world, and destroyed them.

And their destruction was alike: as death came to Adam, so the death of the flood came to them.

Nevertheless you spared one of them, with his household, and from him all the righteous are descended.

And when the inhabitants of the earth began to multiply, and multiplied children and peoples and many multitudes, and began again to be more ungodly than the former generations,

it came to pass that when they practiced ungodliness before you, you chose for yourself one of them, whose name was Abraham,

and you loved him, and you showed him the consummation of the times, alone, between you and him by night.

And you established with him an everlasting covenant, and promised him that you would never forsake his seed.

And you gave him Isaac, and to Isaac you gave Jacob and Esau; and you chose Jacob for yourself as an heritage, and Esau you hated; and Jacob became a great people.

And when you brought up his seed from Egypt and brought them to Mount Sinai,

you inclined the heavens, shook the earth, made the world quake, caused the deeps to tremble, and alarmed the worlds.

And your glory went through the four gates of fire, earthquake, wind, and cold, that you might give the law to Jacob's seed and commandments to the race of Israel.

Yet you did not remove from them the evil heart, that your law might yield fruit in them.

For the first Adam clothed himself with the evil heart, and transgressed, and was overcome, and not only he but also all who were begotten from him.

And the infirmity remained in them, and the law also, together with the evil root; then what was good departed, and the evil came.

And the times passed away, and the seasons were ended; and you raised up for yourself a servant, whose name was David,

and you commanded him to build a city for your name, that oblations from your own might be offered therein.

And this was done for many years. But the inhabitants of the city sinned against you,

doing nothing new beyond what Adam had done and all his generations, for they also were clothing themselves with the evil heart.

And so you delivered your city into the hand of your enemies.

Then I said in my heart: Do the inhabitants of Babylon behave well? Have you for this forsaken Zion?

And it came to pass when I came here I saw many ungodlinesses without number, and my soul saw many iniquities this thirty years, and my heart was perturbed,

because I have seen how you suffer the sinners and spare the ungodly, and have destroyed your people and preserved your enemies,

and have not made known to anyone how your way may be comprehended.

Has Babylon behaved better than Zion? Or do you know any other people more than Israel? Or what tribe has believed your covenant as Jacob has?

They whose reward is not seen, and whose labor has not borne fruit! For I have gone among the peoples and have seen that they are prosperous although unmindful of your commandments.

But now weigh our iniquities and those of the inhabitants of the world, and the poise of the scale will be seen to be not inclined.

Or when have the inhabitants of the world not sinned before you? Or what people has so kept your commandments?

Individuals you may find who have kept your commandments, but a people you shall not find.