Reading as Seek: to learn Scripture and its teachings. Same facts, warmer framing.

2 Esdras 1:18

In 2 translations

KJV: Saying, Why hast thou brought us into this wilderness to kill us? it had been better for us to have served the Egyptians, than to die in this wilderness.
WEB: saying, ‘Why have you brought us into this wilderness to kill us? It would have been better for us to have served the Egyptians than to die in this wilderness.’