2 Esdras 5:34-36

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

³⁴ I said, “No, my lord, but because of my grief I have spoken, for every hour I suffer agonies of heart while I strive to understand the way of the Most High and to search out some part of his judgment.”^(A)

³⁵ He said to me, “You cannot.” And I said, “Why not, my lord? Why, then, was I born? Or why did not my mother’s womb become my grave, so that I would not see the travail of Jacob and the exhaustion of the people of Israel?”^(B)

³⁶ He said to me, “Count up for me those who have not yet come, and gather for me the scattered raindrops, and make the withered flowers bloom again for me;^(C)