1And the Lord confirmed his word, which he spoke against us, and against our judges who judged Israel, and against our kings and our rulers, and against the people of Israel and Judah.
2For under the whole heaven no such thing has been done as what he did in Jerusalem, according to what is written in the law of Moses:
3that we, each person, should eat the flesh of his son and the flesh of his daughter.
4And he made them subject to all the kingdoms around us, a reproach and a desolation among all the surrounding peoples where the Lord scattered them.
5And they came to be underneath and not on top, because we sinned against the Lord our God by not listening to his voice.
6Righteousness belongs to the Lord our God, but to us and to our fathers belongs shame of face, as it is to this day.
7All these evils that have come upon us are the things the Lord spoke against us.
8And we did not plead before the Lord for each person to turn from the thoughts of their evil heart.
9And the Lord kept watch for the calamities, and the Lord brought them upon us, because the Lord is righteous in all his works that he commanded us.
10And we did not listen to his voice, to walk in the commandments of the Lord which he set before us.
11And now, O Lord, the God of Israel, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, with signs and wonders, with great power, and with an outstretched arm, and made for yourself a name that is yours to this day,
12we have sinned, we have acted impiously, we have done wrong, O Lord our God, against all your righteous statutes.
13Let your anger turn away from us, because we have been left few in number among the nations where you scattered us.
14Hear, O Lord, our prayer and our supplication, and deliver us for your own sake, and grant us favor in the sight of those who took us into exile,
15so that all the earth may know that you are the Lord our God, and that your name is called over Israel and his descendants.
16O Lord, look down from your holy house and consider us; incline your ear, O Lord, and hear.
17Open your eyes and see, for it is not the dead in Hades, whose spirit has been taken from their inmost being, who will give glory and righteous praise to the Lord;
18but it is the soul grieving over the great calamity, the one who walks bent over and weak, the failing eyes, and the hungry soul, that will give you glory and righteousness, O Lord.
19For we do not present our plea for mercy before you, O Lord our God, based on the righteous deeds of our fathers and our kings,
20but because you have sent your fury and your wrath upon us, just as you spoke by the hand of your servants the prophets:
21“Thus says the Lord: ‘Bend your shoulder and serve the king of Babylon, and you will dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers.
22But if you do not listen to the voice of the Lord to serve the king of Babylon,
23I will make cease from the cities of Judah and from outside Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, and the whole land will become a desolation, without inhabitants.’”
24But we did not listen to your voice to serve the king of Babylon, and so you confirmed your words, which you spoke by the hands of your servants the prophets: that the bones of our kings and the bones of our fathers would be brought out from their place.
25And behold, they have been cast out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. And they died in terrible sufferings: by famine, by sword, and by pestilence.
26And you have made the house upon which your name was called to be as it is to this day, because of the wickedness of the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
27Yet you have dealt with us, O Lord our God, according to all your forbearance and all your great compassion,
28just as you spoke by the hand of your servant Moses on the day you commanded him to write your law before the sons of Israel, saying:
29“If you do not listen to my voice, surely this great, teeming multitude will be turned into a small number among the nations where I will scatter them.
30For I knew that they would by no means listen to me, because they are a stiff-necked people. But they will return to their heart in the land of their exile,
31And they will know that I am the Lord their God. And I will give them a heart and ears that hear.
32And they will praise me in the land of their exile, and they will remember my name.
33And they will turn from their stiff back and from their evil deeds, because they will remember the way of their fathers who sinned before the Lord.
34And I will bring them back to the land that I swore to their fathers—to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob—and they will be masters of it. And I will multiply them, and they will by no means be diminished.
35And I will establish for them an everlasting covenant: that I will be their God, and they will be my people. And I will no longer remove my people Israel from the land that I gave them.”
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