33 (A)“When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and (B)when they turn back to You and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication to You in this temple,

Read full chapter

17 I will [a]set (A)My face against you, and (B)you shall be defeated by your enemies.

(C)Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall (D)flee when no one pursues you.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Leviticus 26:17 oppose you

25 (A)“The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them; and you shall become [a]troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 28:25 a terror

10 (A)Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.

Read full chapter

24 “Or if Your people Israel are defeated before an (A)enemy because they have sinned against You, and return and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication before You in this temple, 25 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You gave to them and their fathers.

Read full chapter

48 therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in (A)hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He (B)will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you.

Read full chapter

39 And those of you who are left (A)shall [a]waste away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands;

also in their (B)fathers’ iniquities, which are with them, they shall waste away.

40 But (C)if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me,

41 and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies;

if their (D)uncircumcised hearts are (E)humbled, and they (F)accept their guilt—

42 then I will (G)remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember;

I will (H)remember the land.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Leviticus 26:39 rot away

25 And (A)I will bring a sword against you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant;

when you are gathered together within your cities (B)I will send pestilence among you;

and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

Read full chapter

(A)Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, “O (B)Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, (C)we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. (D)Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. O Lord, (E)righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.

“O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. (F)To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. 10 We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. 11 Yes, (G)all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the (H)Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him. 12 And He has (I)confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; (J)for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem.

13 (K)“As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; (L)yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. 14 Therefore the Lord has (M)kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for (N)the Lord our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice. 15 And now, O Lord our God, (O)who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself (P)a name, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly!

16 “O Lord, (Q)according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, (R)Your holy mountain; because for our sins, (S)and for the iniquities of our fathers, (T)Jerusalem and Your people (U)are a reproach to all those around us. 17 Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, (V)and (W)for the Lord’s sake [a]cause Your face to shine on [b]Your sanctuary, (X)which is desolate. 18 (Y)O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes (Z)and see our desolations, and the city (AA)which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. 19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Daniel 9:17 Be gracious
  2. Daniel 9:17 The temple

A Prayer of Penitence

15 (A)Look down from heaven,
And see (B)from Your habitation, holy and glorious.
Where are Your zeal and Your strength,
The yearning (C)of Your heart and Your mercies toward me?
Are they restrained?
16 (D)Doubtless You are our Father,
Though Abraham (E)was ignorant of us,
And Israel does not acknowledge us.
You, O Lord, are our Father;
Our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name.
17 O Lord, why have You (F)made us stray from Your ways,
And hardened our heart from Your fear?
Return for Your servants’ sake,
The tribes of Your inheritance.
18 (G)Your holy people have possessed it but a little while;
(H)Our adversaries have trodden down Your sanctuary.
19 We have become like those of old, over whom You never ruled,
Those who were never called by Your name.

A Prayer for Help

64 Oh, that You would [a]rend the heavens!
That You would come down!
That the mountains might shake at Your (I)presence—
As fire burns brushwood,
As fire causes water to boil—
To make Your name known to Your adversaries,
That the nations may tremble at Your presence!
When (J)You did awesome things for which we did not look,
You came down,
The mountains shook at Your presence.
For since the beginning of the world
(K)Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear,
Nor has the eye seen any God besides You,
Who acts for the one who waits for Him.
You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness,
Who remembers You in Your ways.
You are indeed angry, for we have sinned—
(L)In these ways we continue;
And we need to be saved.

But we are all like an unclean thing,
And all (M)our righteousnesses are like [b]filthy rags;
We all (N)fade as a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind,
Have taken us away.
And there is no one who calls on Your name,
Who stirs himself up to take hold of You;
For You have hidden Your face from us,
And have [c]consumed us because of our iniquities.

But now, O Lord,
You are our Father;
We are the clay, and You our (O)potter;
And all we are the work of Your hand.
Do not be furious, O Lord,
Nor remember iniquity forever;
Indeed, please look—we all are Your people!
10 Your holy cities are a wilderness,
Zion is a wilderness,
Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Our holy and beautiful [d]temple,
Where our fathers praised You,
Is burned up with fire;
And all (P)our pleasant things [e]are laid waste.
12 (Q)Will You restrain Yourself because of these things, O Lord?
(R)Will You [f]hold Your peace, and afflict us very severely?

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 64:1 tear open
  2. Isaiah 64:6 Lit. a filthy garment
  3. Isaiah 64:7 Lit. caused us to melt
  4. Isaiah 64:11 Lit. house
  5. Isaiah 64:11 have become a ruin
  6. Isaiah 64:12 keep silent

10 You make us (A)turn back from the enemy,
And those who hate us have taken [a]spoil for themselves.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 44:10 plunder

The People Confess Their Sins

Now on the twenty-fourth day of (A)this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, in sackcloth, (B)and with [a]dust on their heads. Then (C)those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners; and they stood and (D)confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and (E)read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for one-fourth of the day; and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God.

Then Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani stood on the [b]stairs of the Levites and cried out with a loud voice to the Lord their God. And the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said:

“Stand up and bless the Lord your God
Forever and ever!

“Blessed be (F)Your glorious name,
Which is exalted above all blessing and praise!

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Nehemiah 9:1 Lit. earth on them
  2. Nehemiah 9:4 Lit. ascent

Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, (A)If you [a]are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations; (B)but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, (C)though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.’

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Nehemiah 1:8 act treacherously

At the evening sacrifice I arose from my fasting; and having torn my garment and my robe, I fell on my knees and (A)spread out my hands to the Lord my God. And I said: “O my God, I am too (B)ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God; for (C)our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has (D)grown up to the heavens. Since the days of our fathers to this day (E)we have been very guilty, and for our iniquities (F)we, our kings, and our priests have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the (G)sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to (H)humiliation,[a] as it is this day. And now for a little while grace has been shown from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may (I)enlighten our eyes and give us a measure of revival in our bondage. (J)For we were slaves. (K)Yet our God did not forsake us in our bondage; but (L)He extended mercy to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to revive us, to repair the house of our God, to rebuild its ruins, and to give us (M)a wall in Judah and Jerusalem. 10 And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken Your commandments, 11 which You commanded by Your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land which you are entering to possess is an unclean land, with the (N)uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from one end to another with their impurity. 12 Now therefore, (O)do not give your daughters as wives for their sons, nor take their daughters to your sons; and (P)never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land, and (Q)leave it as an inheritance to your children forever.’ 13 And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, since You our God (R)have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such deliverance as this, 14 should we (S)again break Your commandments, and (T)join in marriage with the people committing these abominations? Would You not be (U)angry with us until You had [b]consumed us, so that there would be no remnant or survivor? 15 O Lord God of Israel, (V)You are righteous, for we are left as a remnant, as it is this day. (W)Here we are before You, (X)in our guilt, though no one can stand before You because of this!”

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Ezra 9:7 Lit. shame of faces
  2. Ezra 9:14 destroyed

14 Moreover all the leaders of the priests and the people transgressed more and more, according to all the abominations of the nations, and defiled the house of the Lord which He had consecrated in Jerusalem.

The Fall of Jerusalem(A)

15 (B)And the Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. 16 But (C)they mocked the messengers of God, (D)despised His words, and (E)scoffed at His prophets, until the (F)wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy.

17 (G)Therefore He brought against them the king of the Chaldeans, who (H)killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, on the aged or the weak; He gave them all into his hand.

Read full chapter

11 (A)Then the king of Assyria carried Israel away captive to Assyria, and put them (B)in Halah and by the Habor, the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, 12 because they (C)did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed His covenant and all that Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded; and they would neither hear nor do them.

Read full chapter

For (A)so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and they had (B)feared other gods, and (C)had walked in the statutes of the nations whom the Lord had cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. Also the children of Israel secretly did against the Lord their God things that were not right, and they built for themselves [a]high places in all their cities, (D)from watchtower to fortified city. 10 (E)They set up for themselves sacred pillars and (F)wooden images[b] (G)on every high hill and under every green tree. 11 There they burned incense on all the high places, like the nations whom the Lord had carried away before them; and they did wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger, 12 for they served idols, (H)of which the Lord had said to them, (I)“You shall not do this thing.”

13 Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah, by all of His (J)prophets, (K)every seer, saying, (L)“Turn from your evil ways, and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by My servants the prophets.” 14 Nevertheless they would not hear, but (M)stiffened their necks, like the necks of their fathers, who (N)did not believe in the Lord their God. 15 And they (O)rejected His statutes (P)and His covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He had testified against them; they followed (Q)idols, (R)became idolaters, and went after the nations who were all around them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should (S)not do like them. 16 So they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, (T)made for themselves a molded image and two calves, (U)made a wooden image and worshiped all the (V)host of heaven, (W)and served Baal. 17 (X)And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, (Y)practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and (Z)sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. 18 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them from His sight; there was none left (AA)but the tribe of Judah alone.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 17:9 Places for pagan worship
  2. 2 Kings 17:10 Heb. Asherim, Canaanite deities

Midianites Oppress Israel

Then the children of Israel did (A)evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord delivered them into the hand of (B)Midian for seven years, and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, (C)the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains.

Read full chapter

11 Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. (A)For they have even taken some of the [a]accursed things, and have both stolen and (B)deceived; and they have also put it among their own stuff. 12 (C)Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because (D)they have become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with you anymore, unless you destroy the accursed from among you.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Joshua 7:11 devoted

O Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns its [a]back before its enemies?

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Joshua 7:8 Lit. neck

Bible Gateway Recommends