Fourth Ezra

In the thirtieth year after the downfall of our city, I, Shealtiel, who am Ezra,

was in Babylon,

and I was lying on my bed, and was troubled,

and thoughts were coming up into my heart,

because I saw the desolation of Zion

and the prosperity of the inhabitants of Babylon.

And my spirit was greatly stirred,

and I began to speak words of fear to the Most High,

and I said:

“O Lord, my Lord,

did you not speak at the beginning, when you formed the earth—and that alone—

and commanded the dust,

and it gave you Adam, a dead body?

Yet he was the creation of your hands,

and you breathed into him the breath of life,

and he became alive before you.

And you brought him into paradise, which your right hand had planted

before the earth appeared.

And to him you laid down a commandment, and he transgressed it;

and immediately you decreed death upon him and upon his generations.

And from him were born nations and tribes,

and tongues and peoples and clans,

of which there is no number.

And each

nation walked

in their works,

and they acted wickedly and did iniquity before you,

and you did not hinder them.

Again, however, in time you brought a flood upon the earth and upon the inhabitants of the world,

and destroyed them.

And their destruction was alike:

just as death came to Adam,

so also to them came the death of the flood.

Yet you left over one of them with his household,

and from him all the righteous proceeded.

And it happened that when the inhabitants of the earth began to multiply,

and produced many children and nations and great assemblies,

they began again to act more wickedly than the former ones.

And it happened that when they acted wickedly before you,

you chose for yourself one of them whose name was Abraham,

and you loved him, and you revealed the end of the times to him alone,

secretly between you and him at night;

and you established an everlasting covenant with him,

and told 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 inheritance,

and Esau you hated;

and Jacob became a great multitude.

And when you brought up his seed out of Egypt, you established an everlasting covenant with him.

And you brought them to Mount Sinai.

And you bowed the heavens and shook the earth,

and made tremble

the world,

and caused the depths to shudder,

and troubled the ages.

And your glory passed through the four gates of fire, and earthquake, and wind, and frost,

to give the law to the seed of Jacob,

and the commandments to the offspring of Israel.

Yet you did not take away from them the evil heart,

so that your law might bear fruit in them.

For the first Adam clothed himself with an evil heart,

and transgressed and was overcome,

and also

all

who were born of him.

Thus the disease became permanent: the law was in the heart of the people

along with the evil root;

then what was good departed, and what was evil came.

And the times passed, and the years came to an end.

And you raised up for yourself a servant named David.

And you told him to build a city for your name,

and a house, that offerings from what is yours might be presented to you in it.

And this was done for many years.

Then the inhabitants of the city sinned against you,

and they did nothing new beyond what Adam and all his generations had done,

for they too had clothed themselves with an evil heart.

And you delivered your city into the hands of your enemies.

Then I said in my heart, 'Are the inhabitants of Babylon doing any better,

and is it on this account that you have forsaken Zion?'

And it came to pass, when I came here, that I saw many impieties without number,

and my soul saw many wrongdoers in this thirtieth year,

and my heart was agitated,

because I saw how you endure 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 understood.

Has Babylon done better than Zion?

Or have you known any other nation more than Israel?

Or what tribe has believed your covenants as Jacob has?

Yet their reward has not appeared,

and their labor has borne no fruit.

For I have passed through among the nations,

and I have seen that they are now prospering,

and do not remember your commandments.

Now therefore, weigh in a balance our iniquities and those of the inhabitants of the world,

and let the inclination of the balance be seen, which way it tilts.

Or when have the inhabitants of the world not sinned before you?

Or what nation has kept your commandments in such a way?

You may indeed find individual men by name who have kept your commandments,

but a nation you cannot find.