2 Esdras 8:43-45

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁴³ If the farmer’s seed does not come up because it has not received your rain in due season or if it has been ruined by too much rain, it perishes.^{[a] 44} But people, who have been formed by your hands and are called your own image because they are made like you and for whose sake you have formed all things, have you also made them like the farmer’s seed?^{(A) 45} Surely not, O Lord^[b] above! But spare your people and have mercy on your inheritance, for you have mercy on your own creation.”^(B)