2 Esdras 5:33
King James VersionSource notes
“And I said, Speak on, my Lord. Then said he unto me, Thou art sore troubled in mind for Israel’s sake: lovest thou that people better than he that made them?”
Context
30If thou didst so much hate thy people, yet shouldest thou punish them with thine own hands.
31Now when I had spoken these words, the angel that came to me the night afore was sent unto me,
32And said unto me, Hear me, and I will instruct thee; hearken to the thing that I say, and I shall tell thee more.
33And I said, Speak on, my Lord. Then said he unto me, Thou art sore troubled in mind for Israel’s sake: lovest thou that people better than he that made them?
34And I said, No, Lord: but of very grief have I spoken: for my reins pain me every hour, while I labour to comprehend the way of the most High, and to seek out part of his judgment.
35And he said unto me, Thou canst not. And I said, Wherefore, Lord? whereunto was I born then? or why was not my mother’s womb then my grave, that I might not have seen the travail of Jacob, and the wearisome toil of the stock of Israel?
36And he said unto me, Number me the things that are not yet come, gather me together the dross that are scattered abroad, make me the flowers green again that are withered,