2 Esdras 5:33-35

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

³³ Then I said, ‘Speak, my lord.’ And he said to me, ‘Are you greatly disturbed in mind over Israel? Or do you love him more than his Maker does?’

³⁴ I said, ‘No, my lord, but because of my grief I have spoken; for every hour I suffer agonies of heart, while I strive to understand the way of the Most High and to search out some part of his judgement.’

³⁵ He said to me, ‘You cannot.’ And I said, ‘Why not, my lord? Why then was I born? Or why did not my mother’s womb become my grave, so that I would not see the travail of Jacob and the exhaustion of the people of Israel?’