2 Esdras 6:55-59

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Why Do God’s People Suffer?

⁵⁵ “All this I have spoken before you, O Lord, because you have said that it was for us that you created this world.^{[a](A) 56} As for the other nations that have descended from Adam, you have said that they are nothing and that they are like spittle, and you have compared their abundance to a drop from a bucket.^{(B) 57} And now, O Lord, these nations, which are reputed to be as nothing, domineer over us and devour us.^{(C) 58} But we your people, whom you have called your firstborn, only begotten, zealous for you,^[b] and most dear, have been given into their hands.^{(D) 59} If the world has indeed been created for us, why do we not possess our world as an inheritance? How long will this be so?”^(E)