2 Esdras 3 - Revised Version with Apocrypha 1885, 1895(RV1895)

1 dust,

5And gave thee Adam, a body without a soul? yet it was the workmanship of thine hands, and shake the earth, and movedst the whole world, wicked heart, that thy law might bring forth fruit in them.

21wicked heart transgressed, and was overcome; and not he only, but all they also that are born of him.

22Thus disease was made permanent; wickedness of the root; so the good departed away, and that which was wicked abode still.

23So the times passed away, and the years were brought to an end: wicked heart;

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

28And I said then in mine heart, how thy way may be comprehended. ver. 28.Are the deeds of Babylon better than those of Sion?

32Or is there any other nation that knoweth thee beside Israel? or what tribes have so believed thy covenants as these tribes of Jacob?

33And yet their reward appeareth not, and their labour hath no fruit: for I have gone hither and thither through the nations, and I see that they abound in wealth, and think not upon thy commandments.

34Cp. Job 31.6 & Dan. 5.27.Weigh thou therefore our iniquities now in the balance, and theirs also that dwell in the world; and so shall it be found which way the scale inclineth.

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

36Cp. Acts 10.35.Thou shalt find that men who may be reckoned by name have kept thy precepts; but nations thou shalt not find.