“But the tax collector, standing some distance away, wouldn’t even lift his eyes toward heaven, but beat his chest, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’
Then I said: “Oy to me! For I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I am dwelling among a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, Adonai-Tzva’ot!”
I prayed, “O my God, I am ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God! For our iniquities are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens.
“Be quiet!” they said to him. “Put your hand on your mouth and go with us and be to us a father and a priest! Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man or to be priest to a tribe and a clan in Israel?”
Then Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Adonai, who said to me, ‘Return to your land and to your relatives and I will do good with you.’
“‘You Lord are righteousness, but shame covers our face to this day—the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and all Israel, near and far, in all the countries where you have banished them—because they behaved unfaithfully toward you.
No one calls on Your Name, or stirs himself up to take hold of You. For You have hidden Your face from us, and have consumed us, because of our iniquities.
Adonai, God of Israel, You are righteous, for we are left this day as a remnant. Behold, here we are before You in our guilt; because of it no one can stand before You.”
But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom bush. He prayed that he might die. “It’s too much!” he said. “Now, Adonai, take my life! For I’m no better than my fathers.”
But David’s heart troubled him after he had numbered the people. So David prayed to Adonai, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done! But now, Adonai, please take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”
“Suppose the tza'arat breaks out above the flesh, and so far as it all appears in the eyes of the kohen, covers all the skin of the infected person from his head to his feet.
So you will remember, be ashamed and never open your mouth again because of your disgrace, when I have forgiven you of all that you have done.” It is a declaration of Adonai.