A further confession of the sins of the people, and of the justice of God.
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“ ‘For this reason, the Lord our God has fulfilled his word, which he has spoken to us, and to our judges, who have judged Israel, and to our kings, and to our leaders, and to all Israel and Judah.
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And so the Lord has brought upon us great evils, such as never before happened under heaven, (but which have come to pass in Jerusalem according to what was written in the law of Moses)(a)
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even that a man would eat the flesh of his son and the flesh of his daughter.
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And so he placed them under the hand of all the kings who surround us, in disgrace and desolation among all the people where the Lord has scattered us.
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And we were brought down low and were not raised up, because we sinned against the Lord our God, by not obeying his voice.
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To the Lord our God is justice, but to us and to our fathers is confusion of face, just as on this day.
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For the Lord has pronounced against us all these evils, which have overcome us.
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And we have not beseeched the face of the Lord our God, so that we might return, each one of us from our most sinful ways.
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And the Lord has watched over us for evil and has brought it upon us, because the Lord is just in all his works that he has commanded us,
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and we have not listened to his own voice, so as to walk according to the teachings of the Lord, which he has set before our face.
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And now, O Lord God of Israel, who has led your people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand, and with signs, and with wonders, and with your great power, and with an exalted arm, and has made a name for yourself, just as on this day,
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we have sinned, we have become impious, we have acted unjustly, O Lord our God, against all your principles.
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May your wrath be turned away from us because, having been forsaken, we are few among the irreligious where you have scattered us.(b)
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Heed, O Lord, our petitions and our prayers, and deliver us for your own sake, and grant that we may find favor before the face of those who have led us away,
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so that all the earth may know that you are the Lord our God, and because your name has been invoked over Israel and over his posterity.
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Gaze upon us, O Lord, from your holy home, and incline your ear, and heed us.
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Open your eyes and see, because the dead, who are in the underworld, whose spirit has been taken away from their vital organs, will not give honor and justification to the Lord.(c) (d)
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But the soul that is sorrowful for the greatness of evil, approaches bowed down and weak, and the failing eyes and the hungering soul give glory and justice to you, the Lord.
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For it is not according to the righteousness of our fathers that we pour out our petitions and beg mercy in your sight, O Lord our God,
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but because you have sent your wrath and your fury upon us, just as you have spoken by the hand of your children the prophets, saying:(e)
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“Thus says the Lord, ‘Bow down your shoulder and your neck, and do work for the king of Babylon, and settle in the land which I gave to your fathers,
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because, if you will not listen to the voice of the Lord your God, to serve the king of Babylon, I will cause you to depart from the cities of Judah and from the gates of Jerusalem.
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And I will take away from you the voice of cheerfulness and the voice of joy, and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, and all the land will be without any trace of its inhabitants.’ ”
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And they did not listen to your voice, that they should serve the king of Babylon, and so you have fulfilled your words, which you spoke by the hands of your children the prophets, so that the bones of our kings and the bones of our fathers would be carried away from their place.
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And, behold, they have been cast out into the heat of the sun and the frost of the night, and they have died by means of grievous evils, by famine, and by the sword, and by banishment.
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And you have set up the temple, in which your name itself was called upon, just as it is on this day, because of the iniquity of the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
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And you have accomplished in us, O Lord our God, according to all your goodness and according to all your great mercy,
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just as you spoke by the hand of your child Moses, in the day when you commanded him to write your law before the sons of Israel,(f)
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saying: “If you will not listen to my voice, this great multitude will be changed into the least among the peoples, where I will scatter them.
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For I know that the people will not listen to me, for the people are stiff necked. But they will have a change of their heart in the land of their captivity,
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and they will know that I am the Lord their God. And I will give them a heart, and they will understand, ears, and they will hear.
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And they will praise me in the land of their captivity, and will remember my name.(g)
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And they will turn themselves away from their stiff back, and from their wicked deeds, for they will call to mind the way of their fathers, who sinned against me.
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And I will restore them to the land which I pledged to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they will rule over it, and I will multiply them, and they will not be diminished.
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And I will establish for them a new and everlasting covenant, so that I will be their God and they will be my people. And I will no longer move my people, the sons of Israel, out of the land which I have given them.”
Footnotes