1   In the thirteth yeare of the ruine of the citie I was in Babylon, and was trubled lying in my chamber, and my cogitations came vp ouer my hart.

2   because I saw the desolation of Sion, and the abundance of them that dwelt in Babylon.

3   And my spirit was tossed excedingly, and I began to speake to the highest timorous wordes,

4   and sayd: O Lord dominatour thou spakest from the beginning, when thou didst plant the earth, and that alone, and didst rule ouer the people,

5   and gauest Adam a dead bodie: but that also was the worke of thy handes, & didst breath into him the spirit of life, and he was made to liue before thee:

6   and thou broughst him into paradise, which thy right hand had planted, before the earth came.

7   And him thou didst command to loue thy way, and he transgressed it, & forthwith thou didst institute death in him, and in his posteritie, and there were borne nations, and tribes, and peoples, and kinreds, wherof there is no number.

8   And euerie nation walked in their owne wil, & they did meruelous thinges before thee, and despised thy preceptes.

9   And agane in time thou broughst in the floud vpon inhabitantes of the world, and didst destroy them.

10   And there was made in euery one of them, as vnto Adam to dye, so to them the floud,

11   But thou didst leaue one of them, Noe with his house and of him were al the iust.

12   And in came to passe, when they began to be multiplied, that dwelt vpon the earth, & multiplied children and peoples and manie nations: and they begane againe to doe impietie more then the former.

13   And it came to passe when they did iniquitie before thee, thou didst choose thee a man of them whose name was Abraham.

14   And thou didst loue him and to him onlie thou didst shew thy wil.

15   And thou didst dispose vnto him an euerlasting testament, and toldst him that thou wouldst neuer forsake his seede. And thou gauest him Isaac, and to Isaac thou gauest Iacob and Esau.

16   And Iacob thou didst seuer to thy selfe, but Esau thou didst separate. And Iacob grewe to a great multitude.

17   And it came to passe when thou didst bring forth his sede out of Ægypt, thou broughst it vpon mount Sinai.

18   And thou didst bowe the heauens, and fasten the earth, and didst shake the world, and madest the depthes to tremble, and trubledst the world,

19   and thy glorie passed foure gates of fire, and of earthquake, and winde, and frost, that thou mightst geue a law to the seede of Iacob, and to the generation of Israel diligence.

20   And thou didst not take away from them a malignant hart, that thy law might bring

forth fruite in them.

21   For Adam the first bearing a vicious hart transgressed and was ouercome, yea and al that were borne of him.

22   And it was made a permanent infirmitie, and the law with the hart of the people, with the wickednes of the roote, and that which is good departed, and the wicked remayned.

23   And the times passed, & the yeares were ended: and thou didst raise vp vnto thee a seruant named Dauid,

24   and spakest vnto him to build a citie of thy name, and to offer vnto thee in it frankencense, and oblations.

25   And this was done manie yeares, and they that inhabited the citie forsooke thee,

26   in al things as Adam and al his generations. For they also vsed a wicked hart.

26   And thou didst deliuer thy citie into the hands of thyne enimies.

27   Why, doe they better thinges, that inhabite Babylon? And for this shal she rule ouer Sion?

29   It came to passe when I was come hither, and had sene the impieties that can not be numbred: and my soul saw manie offending this thirteth yeare, & my hart was astonied:

30   because I saw how thou bearest with their sinne, and didst spare them that did impiously, and didst destroy thine owne people, and preserue thine enimies, and didst not signifie it.

31   I nothing remember how this way should be forsaken: doth Babylon better thinges then Sion?

32   Or hath anie nation knowen thee beside Israel: or what tribes haue beleued thy testamentes as Iacob?

33   Whose reward hath not appeared, nor their labour fructified. For passing through I passed among the nations, and I saw them abound, and not mindeful of thy commandmentes.

34   Now therfore wey our iniquities in a ballance, and theirs that dwel in the world: & thy name shal not be found, but in Israel.

35   Or when haue not they sinned in thy sight, that inhabite the earth? or what nation hath so obserued thy commandmentes?

36   These certes by their names thou shalt finde to haue kept thy commandmentes, but the nations thou shalt not finde.

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