2nd Book of Àzrah — 3

Àzrah’s Prayer of Complaint

1 In the thirtieth year after the destruction of our city, I Salathial, who am also called Àzrah, was in Babylun. I was troubled as I lay on my bed, and my thoughts welled up in my heart, 

2 because I saw the desolation of Ziun and the wealth of those who lived in Babylun. 

3 My spirit was greatly agitated, and I began to speak anxious words to the Most High, and said, 

4 “O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH, did you not speak at the beginning when you did form the Arath and that without help and did command the dust 

5 and it gave you Adam, a lifeless body? Yet he was the workmanship of your hands, and You did breathe into him the breath of life, and he was made alive in your presence. 

6 And You did lead him into the garden which your right hand had planted before the Arath appeared. 

7 And you did give Adam one commandment; but he transgressed it, and immediately you did appoint death for him and for his descendants. From him there sprang nations and tribes, peoples and clans, without number. 

8 And every nation walked after its own will and did Unrighteous things before You and scorned You, and You did not hinder them. 

9 But again, in its time you did bring the flood upon the inhabitants of the world and destroy them. 

10 And the same fate befell them: as death came upon Adam, so the flood upon them. 

11 But you did leave one of them, Nuah with his household, and all the righteous who have descended from him.

12 “When those who dwelt on the Arath began to multiply, they produced children and peoples and many nations, and again they began to be more Unrighteous than ancestors. 

13 And when they were committing iniquity before you, You did choose for thyself one of them, whose name was Abraham; 

14 and You did love him, and to Abraham only did you reveal the end of the times, secretly by night. 

15 Thou did make with him an everlasting covenant, and promise him that you would never forsake his descendants; and you gave to him Yachaq, and to Yachaq you gave Ya'aqub and Ásau. 

16 And You did set apart Ya'aqub for yourself, but Ásau You did reject; and Ya'aqub became a great multitude. 

17 And when You did lead his descendants out of Mitzraym, You did bring them to Mount Sinai. 

18 O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH You did bend down the Shamaym and shake the Arath, and move the world, and make the depths to tremble, and trouble the times. 

19 And your Kabad passed through the four gates of fire and earthquake and wind and ice, to give the law to the descendants of Ya'aqub, and Your commandment to the posterity of Yashar'AL.

20 “Yet You did not take away from them their evil heart, so that your law might bring forth fruit in them. 

21 For the first Adam, burdened with an evil heart, transgressed and was overcome, as were also all who were descended from him. 

22 Thus the disease became permanent; the law was in the people’s heart along with the evil root, but what was good departed, and the evil remained. 

23 So the times passed and the years were completed, and you did raise up for thyself a servant, named Daud. 

24 And you did command him to build a city for your Name, and in it to offer You oblations from what is yours. 

25 This was done for many years; but the inhabitants of the city transgressed, 

26 in everything doing as Adam and all his descendants had done, for they also had the evil heart. 

27 So you did deliver the city into the hands of your enemies.

Babylun Compared with Ziun

28 “Then I said in my heart, Are the deeds of those who inhabit Babylun any better? Is that why she has gained dominion over Ziun? 

29 For when I came here I saw Unrighteous deeds without number, and my soul has seen many sinners during these thirty years. And my heart failed me, 

30 for I have seen how you do endure those who sin, and has spared those who act wickedly, and has destroyed your people, and have preserved your enemies, 

31 and have not shown to any one how your way may be comprehended. Are the deeds of Babylun better than those of Ziun? 

32 Or has another nation known you besides Yashar'AL? Or what tribes have so believed your covenants as these tribes of Ya'aqub? 

33 Yet their reward has not appeared and their labor has borne no fruit. For I have traveled widely among the nations and have seen that they abound in wealth, though they are unmindful of your commandments. 

34 Now therefore weigh in a balance our iniquities and those of the inhabitants of the world; and so it will be found which way the turn of the scale will incline. 

35 When have the inhabitants of the Arath not sinned in your sight? Or what nation has kept your commandments so well? 

36 You may indeed find individual men who have kept your commandments, but nations You will not find.”