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open thy eyes, O Lord, and see; for the dead who are in Hades, whose spirit has been taken from their bodies, will not ascribe glory or justice to the Lord,
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but the person that is greatly distressed, that goes about bent over and feeble, and the eyes that are failing, and the person that hungers, will ascribe to thee glory and righteousness, O Lord.
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For it is not because of any righteous deeds of our fathers or our kings that we bring before thee our prayer for mercy, O Lord our God.
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“Thus says the Lord: Bend your shoulders and serve the king of Babylon, and you will remain in the land which I gave to your fathers.
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But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord and will not serve the king of Babylon,
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God’s Promise Recalled
“‘Yet thou hast dealt with us, O Lord our God, in all thy kindness and in all thy great compassion,
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and they will know that I am the Lord their God. I will give them a heart that obeys and ears that hear;
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and will turn from their stubbornness and their wicked deeds; for they will remember the ways of their fathers, who sinned before the Lord.
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“‘O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, the soul in anguish and the wearied spirit cry out to thee.
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Hear, O Lord, and have mercy, for we have sinned before thee.
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O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, hear now the prayer of the dead of Israel and of the sons of those who sinned before thee, who did not heed the voice of the Lord their God, so that calamities have clung to us.
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For thou art the Lord our God, and thee, O Lord, will we praise.
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Behold, we are today in our exile where thou hast scattered us, to be reproached and cursed and punished for all the iniquities of our fathers who forsook the Lord our God.’”
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But say in your heart, “It is thou, O Lord, whom we must worship.”
