The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Esdras 03
1 In the thirtieth year after the ruin of
the city, I Salathiel, also called Esdras, was
in Babylon, and lay troubled upon my bed,
and my thoughts came up over my heart,
2 for I saw the desolation of Zion and the
wealth of those who lived at Babylon.
3 My spirit was very agitated, so that I
began to speak words full of fear to the
Most High, and said,
4 “O sovereign Lord, didn’t you speak
at the beginning when you formed the
earth—and that yourself alone—and
commanded the dust
5 and it gave you Adam, a body without
a soul? Yet it was the workmanship of
your hands, and you breathed into him the
breath of life, and he was made alive in
your presence.
6 You led him into the garden which your
right hand planted before the earth appeared.
7 You gave him your one commandment,
which he transgressed, and immediately
you appointed death for him and his
descendants. From him were born nations,
tribes, peoples, and kindred without number.
8 Every nation walked after their own
will, did ungodly things in your sight, and
despised your commandments, and you
didn’t hinder them.
9 Nevertheless, again in process of time,
you brought the flood on those who lived
in the world and destroyed them.
10 It came to pass that the same thing
happened to them. Just as death came to
Adam, so was the flood to these.
11 Nevertheless, you left one of them,
Noah with his household, and all the
righteous men who descended from him.
12 “It came to pass that when those who
lived upon the earth began to multiply,
they also multiplied children, peoples, and
many nations, and began again to be more
ungodly than their ancestors.
13 It came to pass, when they did
wickedly before you, you chose one from
among them, whose name was Abraham.
14 You loved, andtohimonly youshowed
the end of the times secretly by night,
15 and made an everlasting covenant
with him, promising him that you would
never forsake his descendants. To him,
you gave Isaac, and to Isaac you gave Jacob
and Esau.
16 You set apart Jacob for yourself, but
rejected Esau. Jacob became a great multitude.
17 It came to pass that when you led
his descendants out of Egypt, you brought
them up to Mount Sinai.
18 You bowed the heavens also, shook the
earth, moved the whole world, made the
depths tremble, and troubled the age.
19 Your glory went through four gates, of
fire, of earthquake, of wind, and ofice, that
you might give the law to the descendants
of Jacob, and the commandment to the
descendants of Israel.
20 “Yet you didn’t take away from them
their wicked heart, that your law might
produce fruit in them.
21 For the first Adam, burdened with a
wicked heart transgressed and was
overcome, as were all who are
descended from him.
22 Thus disease was made permanent.
The law was in the heart of the people
along with the wickedness of the root. So
the good departed away and that which
was wicked remained.
23 So the times passed away, and the
years were brought to an end. Then you
raised up a servant, called David,
24 whom you commanded to build a city
to your name, and to offer burnt offerings
to you in it from what is yours.
25 When this was done many years, then
those who inhabited the city did evil,
26 in all things doing as Adam and all his
generations had done, for they also had a
wicked heart.
27 So you gave your city over into the
hands of your enemies.
28 “Then I said in my heart, ‘Are their
deeds of those who inhabit Babylon any
better? Is that why it gained dominion
over Zion?’
29 For it came to pass when I came here,
that I also saw impieties without number,
and my soul saw many sinners in this
thirtieth year, so that my heart failed me.
30 For I have seen how you endure them
sinning, and have spared those who act
ungodly, and have destroyed your people,
and have preserved your enemies;
31 and you have not shown how your
way may be comprehended. Are the deeds
of Babylon better than those of Zion?
32 Or is there any other nation that
knows you beside Israel? Or what tribes
have so believed your covenants as these
tribes of Jacob?
33 Yet their reward doesn’t appear, and
their labor has no fruit, for I have gone
here and there through the nations, and I
see that they abound in wealth, and don’t
think about your commandments.
34 Weigh therefore our iniquities now in
the balance, and theirs also who dwell in
the world, and so will it be found which
way the scale inclines.
35 Or when was it that they who dwell
on the earth have not sinned in your sight?
Or what nation has kept your
commandments so well?
36 You will find some men by name who
have kept your precepts, but you won’t
find nations.”