1 In the thirties year after the ruin of the city, I Salathiel (the same is Esdras) was in Babylon, and lay troubled upon my bed, and my thoughts came up over my heart:
2 for I saw the desolation of Sion, and the wealth of them that lived at Babylon.
3 And my spirit was sore moved, so that I began to speak words full of fear to the Most High, and said,
4 O Lord that bear rule, did you not not speak at the beginning, when you did fashion the earth, and that yourself alone, and command the dust.
5 and it gave you Adam, a body without a soul? yet it was the workmanship of your hands, and you did breathe into him the breath of life, and he was made living before you.
6 And you led him into paradise, which your right hand did plant, before ever the earth came forward.
7 And to him you gave your one commandment: which he transgressed, and immediately you appointed death for him and in his generations; and there were born of him nations and tribes, peoples and kindred, out of number.