2 Esdras 1:27-29

Revised Standard Version

²⁷ It is not as though you had forsaken me; you have forsaken yourselves, says the Lord.

²⁸ “Thus says the Lord Almighty: Have I not entreated you as a father entreats his sons or a mother her daughters or a nurse her children, ²⁹ that you should be my people and I should be your God, and that you should be my sons and I should be your father?