I turned my face to the Lord God, devoting myself to prayer and supplication, in fasting, in sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God, making confession thus:
O Lord, great and awesome God,
who stays faithful to His covenant with those who love Him
and keep His commandments!
We have sinned; we have gone astray;
we have acted wickedly;
we have been rebellious and have deviated from Your commandments and Your rules,
and have not obeyed Your servants the prophets who spoke in Your name
to our kings, our officers, our fathers, and all the people of the Land.
With You, O LORD, is the right,
and the shame is on us to this very day,
on the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, all Israel, near and far,
in all the lands where You have banished them,
for the trespass they committed against You.
The shame, O LORD, is on us,
on our kings, our officers, and our fathers,
because we have sinned against You.
To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness,
for we rebelled against Him,
and did not obey the LORD our God by following His teachings
that He set before us through His servants the prophets.
All Israel has violated Your teaching and gone astray, disobeying You;
so the curse and the oath written in the Teaching of Moses, the servant of God,
have been poured down upon us, for we have sinned against Him.
He carried out the threat that He made against us,
and against our rulers who ruled us, to bring upon us great misfortune;
under the whole heaven there has never been done
the like of what was done to Jerusalem.
All that calamity, just as is written in the Teaching of Moses, came upon us,
yet we did not supplicate the the LORD our God,
did not repent of our iniquity or become wise through Your truth.
Hence the LORD was intent upon bringing calamity upon us,
for the LORD our God is in the right in all that He has done,
but we have not obeyed Him.
Now, O LORD our God—You who brought Your people out
of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand,
winning fame for Yourself to this very day—
we have sinned, we have acted wickedly.
O Lord, as befits Your abundant benevolence,
let Your wrathful fury turn back from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain;
for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers,
Jerusalem and Your people have become a mockery among all who are around us.
O our God, hear now the prayer of Your servant and his plea,
and show Your favor to Your desolate sanctuary, for the Lord’s sake.
Incline Your ear, O my God, and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolation
and the city to which Your name is attached.
Not because of any merit of ours do we lay our plea before You
but because of Your abundant mercies.
O Lord, hear!
O Lord, forgive!
O Lord, listen, and act without delay for Your own sake,
O my God;
for Your name is attached to Your city and Your people!”
