For after I returned, I repented, and after that I was instructed, I struck my thigh— I was ashamed and also humiliated, for I bore the disgrace of my youth.’
He was oppressed and He was afflicted yet He did not open His mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter, like a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.
For You are our Father— even if Abraham would not know us or Israel not recognize us. You, Adonai, are our Father, our Redeemer— from everlasting is Your Name.
Let’s lie down with our shame and let our disgrace cover us! For we have sinned against Adonai Eloheinu —both we and our fathers— from our youth even to this day. We have not paid attention to the voice of Adonai Eloheinu.”
For thus says Adonai: “Sing aloud with joy for Jacob! Shout with the chief of the nations! Proclaim, give praise, and say: ‘Adonai, save your people, the remnant of Israel!’
Hear the word of Adonai, O nations, and declare it in the distant islands, and say: ‘He who scattered Israel will gather and watch over him, as a shepherd does his flock.’
Adonai, do Your eyes not look for faithfulness? You struck them, but they did not grieve. You disciplined them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than stone. They refused to return.
There you will remember your ways and all your deeds, by which you defiled yourselves. You will loathe yourselves for all your evil that you have done.
As it is written in the Torah of Moses, all this calamity came on us, yet we have not sought the favor of Adonai Eloheinu by turning away from our iniquities and paying attention to Your truth.
Though Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh, I put a yoke over her fair neck. I will make Ephraim pull; Judah will plow; Jacob will drag a harrow by himself.”
Then those who revere Adonai spoke with each other, and Adonai took notice and heard, and a scroll of remembrance was written before Him, for those who revere Adonai, even those who esteem His Name.
And he will go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of fathers to the children and the disobedient ones to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready for Adonai a prepared people.
“And he got up and went to his own father. But while he was still far away, his father saw him and felt compassion. He ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
Have you forgotten the warning addressed to you as sons? “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of Adonai or lose heart when you are corrected by Him,