23. So the times passed away, and the years were brought to an end: then did you raise you up a servant, called David,
24. whom you commanded to build a city to your name, and to offer oblations to you therein of your own.
25. When this was done many years, then they that inhabited the city did evil,
26. in all things doing even as Adam and all his generations had done: for they also bare a wicked heart:
27. and so you gave your city over into the hands of your enemies.
28. And I said then in mine heart, are their deeds any better that inhabit Babylon? and has she therefore dominion over Sion?
29. For it came to pass when I came hither, that I saw also impieties without number, and my soul saw many evil-doers in this thirties year, so that my heart failed me.
30. For I have seen how you suffer them sinning, and have spared the ungodly doers, and have destroyed your people, and have preserved your enemies; and you have not signified
31. to any how your way may be comprehended. Are the deeds of Babylon better than those of Sion?
32. Or is there any other nation that knows you beside Israel? or what tribes have so believed your covenants as these tribes of Jacob?
33. And yet their reward appears not, and their labor has no fruit: for I have gone hither and there through the nations, and I see that they abound in wealth, and think not upon your commandments.
34. Weigh you therefore our iniquities now in the balance, and theirs also that dwell in the world; and so shall it be found which way the scale inclines.
35. Or when was it that they which dwell upon the earth have not sinned in your sight? or what nation has so kept your commandments?
36. You shall find that men who may be reckoned by name have kept your precepts; but nations you shall not find.