¹⁸ “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself:
‘You have ^(A)chastised me, and I was chastised,
Like an untrained bull;
^(B)Restore me, and I will return,
For You are the Lord my God.
¹⁹ Surely, ^(C)after my turning, I repented;
And after I was instructed, I struck myself on the thigh;
I was ^(D)ashamed, yes, even humiliated,
Because I bore the reproach of my youth.’
²⁰ Is Ephraim My dear son?
Is he a pleasant child?
For though I spoke against him,
I earnestly remember him still;
^(E)Therefore My ^[a]heart yearns for him;
^(F)I will surely have mercy on him, says the Lord.

‘Return, backsliding Israel,’ says the Lord;
‘I will not cause My anger to fall on you.
For I am ^(B)merciful,’ says the Lord;
‘I will not remain angry forever.
^13 (C)Only acknowledge your iniquity,
That you have transgressed against the Lord your God,
And have ^(D)scattered your ^[a]charms
To ^(E)alien deities ^(F)under every green tree,
And you have not obeyed My voice,’ says the Lord.

⁶ But we are all like an unclean thing,
And all ^(A)our righteousnesses are like ^[a]filthy rags;
We all ^(B)fade as a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind,
Have taken us away.
⁷ 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 ^[b]consumed us because of our iniquities.

⁸ But now, O Lord,
You are our Father;
We are the clay, and You our ^(C)potter;
And all we are the work of Your hand.
⁹ 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 ^[c]temple,
Where our fathers praised You,
Is burned up with fire;
And all ^(D)our pleasant things ^[d]are laid waste.
^12 (E)Will You restrain Yourself because of these things, O Lord?
^(F)Will You ^[e]hold Your peace, and afflict us very severely?

^6 (A)We have sinned with our fathers,
We have committed iniquity,
We have done wickedly.

²⁶ “Nevertheless they ^(A)were disobedient
And rebelled against You,
^(B)Cast Your law behind their backs
And killed Your ^(C)prophets, who ^[a]testified against them
To turn them to Yourself;
And they worked great provocations.
^27 (D)Therefore You delivered them into the hand of their enemies,
Who oppressed them;
And in the time of their trouble,
When they cried to You,
You ^(E)heard from heaven;
And according to Your abundant mercies
^(F)You gave them deliverers who saved them
From the hand of their enemies.

²⁸ “But after they had rest,
^(G)They again did evil before You.
Therefore You left them in the hand of their enemies,
So that they had dominion over them;
Yet when they returned and cried out to You,
You heard from heaven;
And ^(H)many times You delivered them according to Your mercies,
²⁹ And ^[b]testified against them,
That You might bring them back to Your law.
Yet they acted ^[c]proudly,
And did not heed Your commandments,
But sinned against Your judgments,
^(I)‘Which if a man does, he shall live by them.’
And they shrugged their shoulders,
^[d]Stiffened their necks,
And would not hear.
³⁰ Yet for many years You had patience with them,
And ^[e]testified ^(J)against them by Your Spirit ^(K)in Your prophets.
Yet they would not listen;
^(L)Therefore You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.