Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people.
Why, O Lord, do you let us stray from your ways and let our heart harden, so that we do not fear you? Turn back for the sake of your servants, the tribes that are your heritage.
And after I have plucked them up, I will again have compassion on them, and I will bring them again to their heritage and to their land, every one of them.
How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender.
Therefore, thus says the Lord: I have returned to Jerusalem with compassion; my house shall be built in it, says the Lord of hosts, and a measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.