3 Then I turned my face to the Lord God to seek him by prayer and pleas for mercy,b in fasting and in sackcloth and ashes. 4 And I prayed to Yahweh my God, and I made confession and I said, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, keeping the covenant and loyal love with those who love him and with those who keep his commandments, 5 we have sinned and we have done wrong and we acted wickedly and we rebelled and have been turning aside from your commandments and from your ordinances. 6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestorsc and to all the people of the land.

7 “⌊Righteousness belongs to you, O Lord⌋,d and on us is open shame, just as it is this day to the people of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to all Israel, ⌊those who are near and those who are far off⌋e in all the lands to which you have driven them,f because of their infidelity which they displayed against you. 8 Yahweh, on us is open shame, on our kings, on our princes, and on our ancestors,g because we have sinned against you. 9 ⌊Compassion and forgiveness belong to the Lord, our God⌋,h for we have rebelled against him, 10 and we have not listened to the voice of Yahweh our God, by following his law ⌊which he placed before us⌋i by the hand of his servants the prophets.

11 “And all Israel transgressed your law and turned aside so as not to listen to your voice, and so the curse and the oath which was written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, has been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him. 12 And so he has carried out his words which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, to bring upon us a great calamity which was not done under all of heaven as it was done in Jerusalem.