2 Esdras 4:23-25

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

²³ For I did not wish to inquire about the ways above, but about those things that we daily experience: why Israel has been given over to the Gentiles in disgrace; why the people whom you loved has been given over to godless tribes, and the law of our ancestors has been brought to destruction and the written covenants no longer exist. ²⁴ We pass from the world like locusts, and our life is like a mist,^[a] and we are not worthy to obtain mercy. ²⁵ But what will he do for his^[b] name that is invoked over us? It is about these things that I have asked.’