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.