2 Esdras 4:12

12 and said to him, "It would have been better for us not to be here than to come here and live in ungodliness, and to suffer and not understand why."

2 Esdras 4:12 In-Context

10 He said to me, "You cannot understand the things with which you have grown up;

11 how then can your mind comprehend the way of the Most High? And how can one who is already worn out by the corrupt world understand incorruption?" When I heard this, I fell on my face

12 and said to him, "It would have been better for us not to be here than to come here and live in ungodliness, and to suffer and not understand why."

13 He answered me and said, "I went into a forest of trees of the plain, and they made a plan

14 and said, "Come, let us go and make war against the sea, so that it may recede before us and so that we may make for ourselves more forests.'