^6 (A)let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, ^(B)confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even ^(C)I and my father's house have sinned. ^7 (D)We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules ^(E)that you commanded your servant Moses.

^11 (A)For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare^[a] and not for evil, ^(B)to give you a future and a hope.

⁹ But you are ^(A)a chosen race, ^(B)a royal ^(C)priesthood, ^(D)a holy nation, ^(E)a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you ^(F)out of darkness into ^(G)his marvelous light. ^10 (H)Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

¹¹ Beloved, I urge you ^(I)as sojourners and exiles ^(J)to abstain from the passions of the flesh, ^(K)which wage war against your soul. ^12 (L)Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, ^(M)they may see your good deeds and glorify God on ^(N)the day of visitation.