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And thou didst command him to build a city for thy name, and in it to offer thee oblations from what is thine.
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This was done for many years; but the inhabitants of the city transgressed,
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in everything doing as Adam and all his descendants had done, for they also had the evil heart.
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So thou didst deliver the city into the hands of thy enemies.
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"Then I said in my heart, Are the deeds of those who inhabit Babylon any better? Is that why she has gained dominion over Zion?
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For when I came here I saw ungodly deeds without number, and my soul has seen many sinners during these thirty years. And my heart failed me,
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for I have seen how thou dost endure those who sin, and hast spared those who act wickedly, and hast destroyed thy people, and hast preserved thy enemies,
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and hast not shown to any one how thy way may be comprehended. Are the deeds of Babylon better than those of Zion?
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Or has another nation known thee besides Israel? Or what tribes have so believed thy covenants as these tribes of Jacob?
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Yet their reward has not appeared and their labor has borne no fruit. For I have traveled widely among the nations and have seen that they abound in wealth, though they are unmindful of thy commandments.
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Now therefore weigh in a balance our iniquities and those of the inhabitants of the world; and so it will be found which way the turn of the scale will incline.