2 Esdras 8:43-45

Revised Standard Version

⁴³ For if the farmer’s seed does not come up, because it has not received thy rain in due season, or if it has been ruined by too much rain, it perishes.^{[a] 44} But man, who has been formed by thy hands and is called thy own image because he is made like thee, and for whose sake thou hast formed all things—hast thou also made him like the farmer’s seed? ⁴⁵ No, O Lord^[b] who art over us! But spare thy people and have mercy on thy inheritance, for thou hast mercy on thy own creation.”