14 If therefore you shall lightly and suddenly destroy him which with so great labor was fashioned by your commandment, to what purpose was he made?
15 Now therefore I will speak; touching man in general, you know best; but touching your people will I speak, for whose sake I am sorry;
16 and for your inheritance, for whose cause I mourn; and for Israel, for whom I am heavy; and for the seed of Jacob, for whose sake I am troubled;
17 therefore will I begin to pray before you for myself and for them: for I see the falls of us that dwell in the land;
18 but I have heard the swiftness of the judgment which is to come.
19 Therefore hear my voice, and understand my saying, and I will speak before you. The beginning of the words of Esdras, before he was taken up. And he said,
20 O Lord, you that abidest for ever, whose eyes are exalted, and whose chambers are in the air;