Lord God of Israel, because you are fair, a few of us continue to remain as survivors. Look at us. All of us are guilty. None of us can stand in your presence because of this.”
Your own wickedness will correct you, and your unfaithful ways will punish you. You should know and see how evil and bitter it is for you if you abandon the Lord your God and do not fear me,” declares the Almighty Lord of Armies.
We must lie down in our shame and be covered by our disgrace. Ever since we were young, we and our ancestors have sinned against the Lord our God. We haven’t obeyed the Lord our God.
When Josiah was king, the Lord asked me, “Did you see what unfaithful Israel did? She went up every high mountain and under every large tree, and she acted like a prostitute there.
That is why a lion from the forest will attack them. A wolf from the wilderness will destroy them. A leopard will lie in ambush outside their cities. All who leave the cities will be torn to pieces, because they rebel so often and they become more and more unfaithful.
Why are we just sitting here? Let’s get up! Let’s go into the fortified cities and die there. The Lord our God has condemned us to die. He has given us poison to drink because we have sinned against the Lord.
But I acted so that my name would not be dishonored among the nations where they were living. While other nations were watching, I made myself known to them by bringing the Israelites out of Egypt.
When the locusts had finished eating every plant in the land, I said, “Almighty Lord, please forgive us! How can ⌞the descendants of⌟ Jacob survive? There are so few of them.”
I have sinned against the Lord. So I will endure his fury until he takes up my cause and wins my case. He will bring me into the light, and I will see his victory.
But I didn’t want their enemies to make me angry. I didn’t want their opponents to misunderstand and say, ‘We won this victory! It wasn’t the Lord who did all this!’ ”
When the Canaanites and everyone who lives in the land hears about it, they will surround us and remove every memory of us from the earth. What will you do then so that your great name ⌞will be remembered⌟?”