1. In the thirtieth year after our city was destroyed, I, Salathiel, who am also Ezra, was in Babylon. I was disturbed as I lay on my bed, and my thoughts kept welling up inside me,
2. because I saw how Zion lay in ruins and how those who lived in Babylon enjoyed abundance.
3. I was deeply disturbed, and I began to speak reverently to the Most High:
4. “Supreme Lord, didn’t you speak in the beginning, when you fashioned the earth, and did this alone? Didn’t you command the earth,