2 Esdras 3:3-13

3 I was deeply disturbed and began to express my fears to God Most High.
4 "O Lord and Master," I said, "you, and you alone, spoke the word at the beginning of creation and formed the world. At your command the dust
5 produced the lifeless body of Adam. Then with your hands you shaped it, you breathed into it the breath of life, and he began to live.
6 You brought him into the Garden of Eden, which you yourself had planted before the earth was made.
7 You gave him just one commandment, but he disobeyed it, and you immediately made him and his descendants subject to death. 1 "From Adam were born more nations, tribes, clans, and families than can be counted.
8 All the nations did whatever they wished; they sinned against you and rejected your commands. But you did nothing to stop them. 2
9 Then again, after a while, you brought on the flood and destroyed the world's population. 3
10 They all suffered the same fate: as death had come to Adam, so now death came to a whole generation in the flood.
11 But you spared one man, Noah, with his family and all his righteous descendants.
12 "The number of people living on earth began to increase, and the number of families, tribes, and nations grew. They too fell into sin and were worse than the generations before them.
13 But then you chose Abraham.

Cross References 3

  • 1. 3.7Wisdom 1.13, 14; 2.23, 24.
  • 2. 3.8Genesis 6.12.
  • 3. 3.9Genesis 6.9--8.22.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.