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In the thirtieth year after our city was destroyed, I, Salathiel, who am also Ezra, was in Babylon. I was disturbed as I lay on my bed, and my thoughts kept welling up inside me,
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because I saw how Zion lay in ruins and how those who lived in Babylon enjoyed abundance.
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I was deeply disturbed, and I began to speak reverently to the Most High:
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“Supreme Lord, didn't you speak in the beginning, when you fashioned the earth, and did this alone? Didn't you command the earth,
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and it gave you Adam, a lifeless body? But it was the work of your hands, and so you breathed into him the breath of life, and he came to life in your presence.