Yes, our kings, our princes, our priests, and our ancestors have not kept your law; They paid no attention to your commandments and the warnings which you gave them.
From the time of our ancestors even to this day our guilt has been great, and for our wicked deeds we have been delivered, we and our kings and our priests, into the hands of the kings of foreign lands, to the sword, to captivity, to pillage, and to disgrace, as is the case today.
The inhabitants of Jerusalem and their leaders failed to recognize him, and by condemning him they fulfilled the oracles of the prophets that are read sabbath after sabbath.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you were unwilling!
because they did not listen to my words—oracle of the Lord—even though I kept sending them my servants the prophets, but they would not listen to them—oracle of the Lord.
And now, because you have committed all these deeds—oracle of the Lord—because you did not listen, though I spoke to you untiringly, and because you did not answer, though I called you,
Now, our God, great, mighty, and awesome God, who preserves the covenant of mercy, do not discount all the hardship that has befallen us, Our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our ancestors, and your entire people, from the time of the kings of Assyria until this day!
This happened because they did not obey the Lord, their God, but violated his covenant; they did not obey nor do all that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded. Sennacherib and Hezekiah.
You were patient with them for many years, bearing witness against them through your spirit, by means of your prophets; Still they would not listen. Therefore you delivered them into the power of the peoples of the lands.
But they did not listen to me, nor did they pay attention. They walked in the stubbornness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me.