27
And so Thou gavest Thy city over into the hands of Thine enemies.
28
"Are their deeds then any better who inhabit Babylon, that they should therefore have the dominion over Zion?
29
For when I came thither and had seen impieties without number, then my soul saw many evildoers in this thirtieth year, so that my heart failed me.
30
For I have seen how Thou sufferest them sinning and hast spared wicked doers, and hast destroyed Thy people and hast preserved Thine enemies, and hast not made it known.
31
I do not conceive how this way may be left. Are they then of Babylon better than they of Zion?
32
Or is there any other people that knoweth Thee besides Israel? Or what generation hath so believed Thy covenants as Jacob?
33
And yet their reward appeareth not, and their labor hath no fruit. For I have gone here and there through the heathen, and I see that they flow in wealth and think not upon Thy commandments.
34
Weigh Thou therefore our wickedness now in the balance and theirs also who dwell in the world; and so shall Thy name nowhere be found but in Israel.
35
Or when was it that those who dwell upon the earth have not sinned in Thy sight? Or what people have so kept Thy commandments?
36
Thou shalt find that Israel by name hath kept Thy precepts, but not the heathen."