2 Esdras 4:23-25

Revised Standard Version

²³ For I did not wish to inquire about the ways above, but about those things which we daily experience: why Israel has been given over to the Gentiles as a reproach; why the people whom you loved has been given over to godless tribes, and the law of our fathers has been made of no effect and the written covenants no longer exist; ²⁴ and why 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 name, by which we are called? It is about these things that I have asked.”