1In the thirtieth year after the destruction of the city, I, Salathiel, also called Esdras, was in Babylon, lying on my bed, disturbed.
2And my thoughts came to my heart, because I saw the desolation of Zion and the opulence of those who lived in Babylon.
3And my spirit was greatly disturbed, and I began to speak words full of fear to the Most High, and said:
4O Lord, O Sovereign, did you not speak in the beginning, when you created the earth — and that alone — and commanded the dust?
5And it gave you Adam, a lifeless body. Yet he was a creature of your hands, and you breathed into him the breath of life, and he became living in your presence.
6And you led him into paradise, which your right hand had planted before the earth had appeared.
7And you commanded him to love your ways, but he transgressed them, and immediately you appointed death for him and his descendants.
8From him were born nations and tribes, peoples and clans, without number.
9And each nation walked according to its own will, and behaved impiously before you, despising your commandments; and you did not stop them.
10But afterward, in their time, you brought the flood upon the inhabitants of the earth and destroyed them.