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In the thirtieth year after the ruin of the city, I was in Babylon and lay troubled upon my bed, and my thoughts came up over my heart;
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for I saw the desolation of Zion, and the wealth of those who dwelt at Babylon.
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And my spirit was sorely moved, so that I began to speak words full of fear to the Most High, and said,
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"O Lord, who bearest rule, Thou spokest at the beginning when Thou didst plant the earth; and that Thyself alone; and commanded the people,
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and gavest a body unto Adam without soul, which was the workmanship of Thine hands, and didst breathe into him the breath of life, and he was made living before Thee.
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And Thou leddest him into Paradise which Thy right hand had planted before ever the earth came forward.
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And unto him Thou gavest commandment to love Thy way, which he transgressed; and immediately Thou appointed death in him and in his generations, from whom came nations, tribes, people, and kindred without number.
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And every people walked after their own will, and did dreadful things before Thee and despised Thy commandments.
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And again, in process of time, Thou broughtest the flood upon those who dwelt in the world, and destroyed them.
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And it came to pass with every one of them that as death was to Adam, so was the flood to these.
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Nevertheless one of them Thou leftest, namely, Noah, with his household, of whom came all righteous men.
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"And it happened, when they that dwelt upon the earth began to multiply, and had gotten them many children and were a great people, that they began again to be more ungodly than the first.
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Now when they lived so wickedly before Thee, Thou didst choose Thee a man from among them whose name was Abraham.
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Him Thou loved, and unto him only Thou showed Thy will
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and madest an everlasting covenant with him, promising him that Thou wouldest never forsake his seed.
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And unto him Thou gavest Isaac, and unto Isaac also Thou gavest Jacob and Esau. As for Jacob, Thou didst choose him to Thee and put off Esau; and so Jacob became a great multitude.
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And it came to pass that, when Thou leddest his seed out of Egypt, Thou broughtest them up to Mount Sinai.
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And, bowing the heavens, Thou didst set fast the earth, moved the whole world, and madest the depths to tremble, and troubled the men of that age.Œ
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And Thy glory went through four gates: of fire and of earthquake and of wind and of cold, that Thou mightest give the law unto the seed of Jacob and diligence unto the generations of Israel.
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"And yet tookest Thou not away from them a wicked heart, that Thy law might bring forth fruit in them.
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For the first Adam, bearing a wicked heart, transgressed and was overcome; and so be all those who are born of him.
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Thus infirmity was made permanent; and the law was (also) in the heart of the people with the malignity of the root, so that the good departed away and the evil abode still.
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So the times passed away, and the years were brought to an end. Then didst Thou raise Thee up a servant called David,
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whom Thou commanded to build a city unto Thy name, and to offer incense and oblations unto Thee therein.
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When this was done many years, then those who inhabited the city forsook Thee,
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and in all things did even as Adam and all his generations had done; for they also had a wicked heart.
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And so Thou gavest Thy city over into the hands of Thine enemies.
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"Are their deeds then any better who inhabit Babylon, that they should therefore have the dominion over Zion?
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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.
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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.
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I do not conceive how this way may be left. Are they then of Babylon better than they of Zion?
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Or is there any other people that knoweth Thee besides Israel? Or what generation hath so believed Thy covenants as Jacob?
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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.
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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.
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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?
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Thou shalt find that Israel by name hath kept Thy precepts, but not the heathen."