A further confession of the sins of the people, and of the justice of
God.
2:1. Wherefore the Lord our God hath made good his word, that he spoke
to us, and to our judges that have judged Israel, and to our kings, and
to our princes, and to all Israel and Juda:
2:2. That the Lord would bring upon us great evils, such as never
happened under heaven, as they have come to pass in Jerusalem,
according to the things that are written in the law of Moses:
2:3. That a man should eat the flesh of his own son, and the flesh of
his own daughter.
2:4. And he hath delivered them up to be under the hand of all the
kings that are round about us, to be a reproach, and desolation among
all the people, among whom the Lord hath scattered us.
2:5. And we are brought under, and are not uppermost: because we have
sinned against the Lord our God, by not obeying his voice.
2:6. To the Lord our God belongeth justice: but to us, and to our
fathers confusion of face, as at this day.
2:7. For the Lord hath pronounced against us all these evils that are
come upon us:
2:8. And we have not entreated the face of the Lord our God, that we
might return every one of us from our most wicked ways.
2:9. And the Lord hath watched over us for evil, and hath brought it
upon us: for the Lord is just in all his works which he hath commanded
us:
2:10. And we have not hearkened to his voice to walk in the
commandments of the Lord which he hath set before us.
2:11. And now, O Lord God of Israel, who hast brought thy people out of
the land of Egypt with a strong hand, and with signs, and with wonders,
and with thy great power, and with a mighty arm, and hast made thee a
name as at this day,
2:12. We have sinned, we have done wickedly, we have acted unjustly, O
Lord our God, against all thy justices.
2:13. Let thy wrath be turned away from us: for we are left a few among
the nations where thou hast scattered us.
2:14. Hear, O Lord, our prayers, and our petitions, and deliver us for
thy own sake: and grant that we may find favour in the sight of them
that have led us away:
2:15. That all the earth may know that thou art the Lord our God, and
that thy name is called upon Israel, and upon his posterity.
2:16. Look down upon us, O Lord, from thy holy house, and incline thy
ear, and hear us.
2:17. Open thy eyes, and behold: for the dead that are in hell, whose
spirit is taken away from their bowels, shall not give glory and
justice to the Lord:
Justice, etc.... They that are in hell shall not give justice to God;
that is, they shall not acknowledge and glorify his justice as penitent
sinners do upon earth.
2:18. But the soul that is sorrowful for the greatness of evil she hath
done, and goeth bowed down, and feeble, and the eyes that fail, and the
hungry soul giveth glory and justice to thee the Lord.
2:19. For it is not for the justices of our fathers that we pour out
our prayers, and beg mercy in thy sight, O Lord our God:
2:20. But because thou hast sent out thy wrath, and thy indignation
upon us, as thou hast spoken by the hand of thy servants the prophets,
saying:
2:21. Thus saith the Lord: Bow down your shoulder, and your neck, and
serve the king of Babylon: and you shall remain in the land which I
have given to your fathers.
2:22. But if you will not hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, to
serve the king of Babylon: I will cause you to depart out of the cities
of Juda, and from without Jerusalem.
2:23. And I will take away from you the voice of mirth, and the voice
of joy, and the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride,
and all the land shall be without any footstep of inhabitants.
2:24. And they hearkened not to thy voice, to serve the king of
Babylon: and thou hast made good thy words, which thou spokest by the
hands of thy servants the prophets, that the bones of our kings, and
the bones of our fathers should be removed out of their place:
2:25. And behold they are cast out to the heat of the sun, and to the
frost of the night: and they have died in grievous pains, by famine,
and by the sword, and in banishment.
2:26. And thou hast made the temple, in which thy name was called upon,
as it is at this day, for the iniquity of the house of Israel, and the
house of Juda.
2:27. And thou hast dealt with us, O Lord our God, according to all thy
goodness, and according to all that great mercy of thine:
2:28. As thou spokest by the hand of thy servant Moses, in the day when
thou didst command him to write thy law before the children of Israel,
2:29. Saying: If you will not hear my voice, this great multitude shall
be turned into a very small number among the nations, where I will
scatter them:
2:30. For I know that the people will not hear me, for they are a
people of a stiff neck: but they shall turn to their heart in the land
of their captivity:
2:31. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God: and I will give
them a heart, and they shall understand: and ears, and they shall hear.
2:32. And they shall praise me in the land of their captivity, and
shall be mindful of my name.
2:33. And they shall turn away themselves from their stiff neck, and
from their wicked deeds: for they shall remember the way of their
fathers, that sinned against me.
2:34. And I will bring them back again into the land which I promised
with an oath to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they
shall be masters thereof: and I will multiply them, and they shall not
be diminished.
2:35. And I will make with them another covenant that shall be
everlasting, to be their God, and they shall be my people: and I will
no more remove my people, the children of Israel, out of the land that
I have given them.