2 Esdras 5:33-35

Common English Bible

³³ I said, “Speak, my Lord.”

He said to me, “Are you really more deeply disturbed over Israel, or do you love him more than the one who made him does?”

³⁴ I said: “No, Lord, but I spoke in grief. My heart torments me every hour while I try to make sense of the Most High’s ways and investigate his decisions.”

³⁵ He said to me, “You can’t.”

And I said: “Why, Lord? Or else why was I born, and why did my mother’s womb not become my tomb so that I might not see the toil of Jacob and the exhaustion of the line of Israel?”