Open your ears and listen, my God. Open your eyes and look at our ruins and at the city called by your name. We are not requesting this from you because we are righteous, but because you are very compassionate.
The Lord said, “I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt, and I have heard them crying out because of the slave drivers. I know how much they’re suffering.
We’ve all become unclean, and all our righteous acts are like permanently stained rags. All of us shrivel like leaves, and our sins carry us away like the wind.
Why should you be like someone taken by surprise, like a strong man who cannot help? You, O Lord, are among us. We are called by your name. Don’t leave us!
I am going to bring disaster on the city that is named after me. Do you think you’ll go unpunished? You will not go unpunished! I’m declaring war on all those who live on earth, declares the Lord of Armies.’
Maybe their prayers will come into the Lord’s presence, and they will turn from their evil ways. The Lord has threatened these people with his terrifying anger and fury.”
“So tell the people of Israel, ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says: I am about to do something, people of Israel. I will not do this for your sake but for the sake of my holy name, which you have dishonored among the nations wherever you have gone.
You, Lord, are righteous. But we—the men of Judah, the citizens of Jerusalem, and all the Israelites whom you scattered in countries near and far—are still ashamed because we have been unfaithful to you.
To God’s church that was made holy by Christ Jesus and called to be God’s holy people in the city of Corinth and to people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.