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1 Therefore the Lord hath made good his word, which he pronounced against us, and against our judges that judged Israel, and against our kings, and against our princes, and against the men of Israel and Judah, 2 to bring upon us great plagues, such as never happened under the whole heaven, * as it came to pass in Jerusalem, according to the things that are written in the law of Moses; 3 That we should eat every man the flesh of his own son, and every man the flesh of his own daughter. 4 Moreover he hath given them to be in subjection to all the kingdoms that are round about us, to be a reproach and a desolation among all the people round about, where the Lord hath scattered them. 5 Thus were they cast down, and not exalted, because we sinned against the Lord our God, in not hearkening unto his voice. 6 To the Lord our God belongeth righteousness: but unto us and to our fathers confusion of face, as at this day. 7 For all these plagues are come upon us, which the Lord hath pronounced against us. 8 Yet have we not intreated the favour of the Lord, in turning every one from the thoughts of his wicked heart. 9 Therefore hath the Lord kept watch over the plagues, and the Lord hath brought them upon us; for the Lord is righteous in all his works which he hath commanded us. 10 Yet we have not hearkened unto his voice, to walk in the commandments of the Lord that he hath set before us.
11 And now, O Lord, thou God of Israel, that hast brought thy people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with signs, and with wonders, and with great power, and with a high arm, and hast gotten thyself a name, as at this day: 12 O Lord our God, we have sinned, we have done ungodly, we have dealt unrighteously in all thine ordinances. 13 Let thy wrath turn from us: for we are but a few left among the heathen, where thou hast scattered us. 14 Hear our prayer, O Lord, and our petition, and deliver us for thine own sake, and give us favour in the sight of them which have led us away captive: 15 that all the earth may know that thou art the Lord our God, because Israel and his posterity is called by thy name. 16 O Lord, look down from thine holy house, and consider us: incline thine ear, O Lord, and hear: 17 open thine eyes, and behold: for the dead that are in † the grave, whose breath is taken from their bodies, will give unto the Lord neither glory nor righteousness: 18 but the soul that is greatly vexed, which goeth stooping and feeble, and the eyes that fail, and the hungry soul, will give thee glory and righteousness, O Lord. 19 For we do not present our supplication before thee, O Lord our God, for the righteousness of our fathers, and of our kings. 20 For thou hast sent thy wrath and thine indignation upon us, as thou hast spoken by thy servants the prophets, saying, 21 Thus saith the Lord, Bow your shoulders to serve the king of Babylon, and remain in the land that I gave unto your fathers. 22 But if ye will not hear the voice of the Lord, to serve the king of Babylon, 23 I will cause to cease out of the cities of Judah, and from without Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: and the whole land shall be desolate without inhabitant. 24 But we would not hearken unto thy voice, to serve the king of Babylon: therefore hast thou made good thy words that thou spakest by thy servants the prophets, namely, that the bones of our kings, and the bones of our fathers, should be taken out of their places. 25 And, lo, they are cast out to the heat by day, and to the frost by night, and they died in great miseries by famine, by sword, and by ‡ pestilence. 26 And the house which is called by thy name hast thou laid waste, as at this day, for the wickedness of the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 27 Yet, O Lord our God, thou hast dealt with us after all thy kindness, and according to all that great mercy of thine, 28 as thou spakest by thy servant Moses in the day when thou didst command him to write thy law before the children of Israel, saying, 29 If ye will not hear my voice, surely this very great multitude shall be turned into a small number among the nations, where I will scatter them. 30 For I know that they will not hear me, because it is a stiffnecked people: but in the land of their captivity they shall lay it to heart, 31 and shall know that I am the Lord their God: and I will give them a heart, and ears to hear: 32 and they shall praise me in the land of their captivity, and think upon my name, 33 and shall return from their stiff neck, and from their wicked deeds: for they shall remember the way of their fathers, which sinned before the Lord. 34 And I will bring them again into the land which I sware unto their fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and they shall be lords of it: and I will increase them, and they shall not be diminished. 35 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them to be their God, and they shall be my people: and I will no more remove my people of Israel out of the land that I have given them.
* 2:2 Another reading is, even as he hath done. † 2:17 Gr. Hades. ‡ 2:25 See Jer. xxxii. 36.