2 Esdras 3:22

22 Thus the disease became permanent; the law was in the people's heart along with the evil root, but what was good departed, and the evil remained.

2 Esdras 3:22 In-Context

20 "Yet thou didst not take away from them their evil heart, so that thy law might bring forth fruit in them.

21 For the first Adam, burdened with an evil heart, transgressed and was overcome, as were also all who were descended from him.

22 Thus the disease became permanent; the law was in the people's heart along with the evil root, but what was good departed, and the evil remained.

23 So the times passed and the years were completed, and thou didst raise up for thyself a servant, named David.

24 And thou didst command him to build a city for thy name, and in it to offer thee oblations from what is thine.