2 Esdras 8:14-16

Common English Bible

¹⁴ If, therefore, you will destroy with a simple command one who was fashioned at your command with so much labor, why was he made? ¹⁵ Now I will surely speak: You know best about the sum total of humanity, but what about your people who grieve me, ¹⁶ and about your inheritance because of which I lament, and about Israel, on whose account I am sad, and about the seed of Jacob because of which I am disturbed?