2 Esdras 8:4-6

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

Ezra Again Appeals to God’s Mercy

⁴ I answered and said, ‘Then drink your fill of understanding,^[a] O my soul, and drink wisdom, O my heart. ⁵ For not of your own will did you come into the world,^[b] and against your will you depart, for you have been given only a short time to live. ⁶ O Lord above us, grant to your servant that we may pray before you, and give us a seed for our heart and cultivation of our understanding so that fruit may be produced, by which every mortal who bears the likeness^[c] of a human being may be able to live.