³⁹ The remnants among you will waste away in the land of your enemies due to their iniquity. Indeed, they’ll also waste away on account of the iniquities of their ancestors with them.”

Return from Captivity

⁴⁰ “Nevertheless, when they confess their iniquity, the iniquity of their ancestors, and their unfaithfulness by which they acted unfaithfully against me by living life contrary to me— ⁴¹ causing me to oppose them and take them to the land of their enemies so that the uncircumcised foreskin of their hearts can be humbled and so that they accept the punishment of their iniquity— ⁴² then I’ll remember my covenant with Jacob, my covenant with Isaac, and my covenant with Abraham. I’ll also remember the land. ⁴³ They will leave the land so it can rest while it lies desolate without them. That’s when they’ll receive the punishment of their iniquity, because indeed they will have rejected my ordinances and despised my statutes. ⁴⁴ Yet, despite all of these things, when they’re in the land of their enemies, I won’t reject or despise them so as to completely destroy them and by doing so violate my covenant with them, because I am the Lord their God. ⁴⁵ Instead, on account of them, I’ll remember my covenant with their ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt right before the eyes of the nations, so that I could be their God. I am the Lord.”

⁴⁶ These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws that the Lord made between himself and the Israelis on Mount Sinai, as recorded by the hand of Moses.