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33 “When your people Israel, having sinned against you, are defeated before an enemy but turn again to you, confess your name, pray and plead with you in this house,(A)

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17 I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down by your enemies; your foes shall rule over you, and you shall flee though no one pursues you.(A)

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

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10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them, and he did not do it.(A)

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24 “When your people Israel, having sinned against you, are defeated before an enemy but turn again to you, confess your name, pray and plead with you in this house,(A) 25 then hear from heaven, forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again to the land that you gave to them and to their ancestors.

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

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39 And those of you who survive shall languish in the land of your enemies because of their iniquities; they shall also languish because of the iniquities of their ancestors.(A)

40 “But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their ancestors—their treachery against me and also their continued hostility to me,(B) 41 so that I in turn was hostile to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if, then, their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity,(C) 42 then will I remember my covenant with Jacob; I will remember also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.(D)

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25 I will bring the sword against you, executing vengeance for the covenant, and if you withdraw into your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into enemy hands.(A)

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Then I turned to the Lord God to seek an answer by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.(A) I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying,

“Ah, Lord, great and awesome God, keeping covenant and steadfast love with those who love you[a] and keep your[b] commandments,(B) we have sinned and done wrong, acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and ordinances.(C) We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land.

“Righteousness is on your side, O Lord, but open shame, as at this day, falls on us, the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them because of the treachery that they have committed against you.(D) Open shame, O Lord, falls on us, our kings, our princes, and our ancestors because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, but we have rebelled against him(E) 10 and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by following his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.

11 “All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. So the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out upon us because we have sinned against you.(F) 12 He has confirmed his words that he spoke against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us a calamity so great that what has been done against Jerusalem has never before been done under the whole heaven.(G) 13 Just as it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us. We did not entreat the favor of the Lord our God, turning from our iniquities and reflecting on his[c] fidelity.(H) 14 So the Lord kept watch over this calamity until he brought it upon us. Indeed, the Lord our God is right in all that he has done, for we have disobeyed his voice.(I)

15 “And now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and made your name renowned even to this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly.(J) 16 O Lord, in view of all your righteous acts, let your anger and wrath, we pray, turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain; because of our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors, Jerusalem and your people have become a disgrace among all our neighbors.(K) 17 Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his supplication, and for your own sake, Lord,[d] let your face shine upon your desolated sanctuary.(L) 18 Incline your ear, O my God, and hear. Open your eyes and look at our desolation and the city that bears your name. We do not present our supplication before you on the ground of our righteousness but on the ground of your great mercies.(M) 19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, listen and act and do not delay! For your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people bear your name!”(N)

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Footnotes

  1. 9.4 Heb him
  2. 9.4 Heb his
  3. 9.13 Heb your
  4. 9.17 Theodotion Vg Compare Syr: Heb for the Lord’s sake

A Prayer of Penitence

15 Look down from heaven and see,
    from your holy and glorious habitation.
Where are your zeal and your might?
    Your great pity and your compassion are withheld from me.(A)
16 For you are our father,
    though Abraham does not know us
    and Israel does not acknowledge us;
you, O Lord, are our father;
    our Redeemer from of old is your name.(B)
17 Why, O Lord, do you let us stray from your ways
    and let our heart harden, so that we do not fear you?
Turn back for the sake of your servants,
    the tribes that are your heritage.(C)
18 Your holy people took possession for a little while,
    but now our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary.(D)
19 We have long been like those whom you do not rule,
    like those not called by your name.(E)

64 O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
    so that the mountains would quake at your presence—(F)
[a]as when fire kindles brushwood
    and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
    so that the nations might tremble at your presence!(G)
When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
    you came down; the mountains quaked at your presence.(H)
From ages past no one has heard,
    no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
    who works for those who wait for him.(I)
You meet those who gladly do right,
    those who remember you in your ways.
But you were angry, and we sinned;
    because you hid yourself we transgressed.[b](J)
We have all become like one who is unclean,
    and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.
We all fade like a leaf,
    and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.(K)
There is no one who calls on your name
    or attempts to take hold of you,
for you have hidden your face from us
    and have delivered[c] us into the hand of our iniquity.(L)
Yet, O Lord, you are our Father;
    we are the clay, and you are our potter;
    we are all the work of your hand.(M)
Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,
    and do not remember iniquity forever.
    Now consider, we are all your people.(N)
10 Your holy cities have become a wilderness;
    Zion has become a wilderness,
    Jerusalem a desolation.(O)
11 Our holy and beautiful house,
    where our ancestors praised you,
has been burned by fire,
    and all our pleasant places have become ruins.(P)
12 After all this, will you restrain yourself, O Lord?
    Will you keep silent and punish us so severely?(Q)

Footnotes

  1. 64.2 64.1 in Heb
  2. 64.5 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  3. 64.7 Gk Syr OL Tg: Heb melted

10 You made us turn back from the foe,
    and our enemies have gotten spoil.(A)

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National Confession

Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the Israelites were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth and with earth on their heads.[a](A) Then those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their ancestors.(B) They stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for a fourth part of the day, and for another fourth they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God.(C) Then Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani stood on the stairs of the Levites and cried out with a loud voice to the Lord their God.(D) Then the Levites Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah said, “Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.”(E)

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Footnotes

  1. 9.1 Heb on them

Remember the word that you commanded Moses your servant, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples,(A) but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are under the farthest skies, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place where I have chosen to establish my name.’(B)

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Ezra’s Prayer

At the evening sacrifice I got up from my fasting, with my garments and my mantle torn, and fell on my knees, spread out my hands to the Lord my God,(A) and said,

“O my God, I am too ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens.(B) From the days of our ancestors to this day we have been deep in guilt, and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been handed over to the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame, as is now the case.(C) But now for a brief moment favor has been shown by the Lord our God, who has left us a remnant and given us a stake in his holy place, in order that he[a] may brighten our eyes and grant us a little sustenance in our slavery.(D) For we are slaves; yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery but has extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to give us new life to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judea and Jerusalem.(E)

10 “And now, 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 that you are entering to possess is a land unclean with the pollutions of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations. They have filled it from end to end with their uncleanness.(F) 12 Therefore, do not give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or prosperity, so that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.’(G) 13 After all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a remnant as this,(H) 14 shall we break your commandments again and intermarry with the peoples who practice these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you destroy us without remnant or survivor?(I) 15 O Lord, God of Israel, you are just, but we have escaped as a remnant, as is now the case. Here we are before you in our guilt, though no one can face you because of this.”(J)

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Footnotes

  1. 9.8 Heb our God

14 All the leading priests and the people also were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations, and they polluted the house of the Lord that he had consecrated in Jerusalem.

The Fall of Jerusalem

15 The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place,(A) 16 but they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words, and scoffing at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord against his people became so great that there was no remedy.(B)

17 Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their youths with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or young woman, the aged or the feeble; he gave them all into his hand.(C)

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11 The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria and settled them in Halah, on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes,(A) 12 because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God but transgressed his covenant—all that Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded; they neither listened nor obeyed.

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This occurred because the people 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. They had worshiped other gods(A) and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the people of Israel and in the customs that the kings of Israel had introduced.[a](B) The people of Israel did[b] things that were not right against the Lord their God. They built for themselves high places at all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city;(C) 10 they set up for themselves pillars and sacred poles[c] on every high hill and under every green tree;(D) 11 there they made offerings on all the high places, as the nations did whom the Lord had carried away before them. They did wicked things, provoking the Lord to anger; 12 they served idols, of which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this.”(E) 13 Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the law that I commanded your ancestors and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”(F) 14 They would not listen but were stubborn, as their ancestors had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God.(G) 15 They despised his statutes and his covenant that he had made with their ancestors and the warnings that he had given them. They went after false idols and became false; they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do as they did.(H) 16 They rejected all the commandments of the Lord their God and made for themselves cast images of two calves; they made a sacred pole,[d] worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.(I) 17 They made their sons and their daughters pass through fire, used divination and augury, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.(J) 18 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight; none was left but the tribe of Judah alone.(K)

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Footnotes

  1. 17.8 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  2. 17.9 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  3. 17.10 Or Asherahs
  4. 17.16 Or Asherah

The Midianite Oppression

The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years.(A) The hand of Midian prevailed over Israel, and because of Midian the Israelites provided for themselves hiding places in the mountains, caves and strongholds.

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11 Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I imposed on them. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have acted deceitfully, and they have put them among their own belongings.(A) 12 Therefore the Israelites are unable to stand before their enemies; they turn their backs to their enemies because they have become a thing devoted for destruction themselves. I will be with you no more unless you destroy the devoted things from among you.

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O Lord, what can I say, now that Israel has turned their backs to their enemies!

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