²² No amount of soap or lye can make you clean.
    I still see the stain of your guilt.
    I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!

¹⁷ My sins would be sealed in a pouch,
    and you would cover my guilt.

¹² “Ephraim’s guilt has been collected,
    and his sin has been stored up for punishment.

⁷ Now the Lord has sworn this oath
    by his own name, the Pride of Israel^[a]:
“I will never forget
    the wicked things you have done!

³ Lord, if you kept a record of our sins,
    who, O Lord, could ever survive?

⁸ You spread out our sins before you—
    our secret sins—and you see them all.

³⁰ Even if I were to wash myself with soap
    and clean my hands with lye,
³¹ you would plunge me into a muddy ditch,
    and my own filthy clothing would hate me.

³⁴ “The Lord says, ‘Am I not storing up these things,
    sealing them away in my treasury?