4. As I prayed to the Lord my God, I made this confession:Please, my Lord—you are the great and awesome God, the one who keeps the covenant, and truly faithful to all who love him and keep his commands:
5. We have sinned and done wrong. We have brought guilt on ourselves and rebelled, ignoring your commands and your laws.
6. We haven’t listened to your servants, the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our leaders, our parents, and to all the land’s people.
7. Righteousness belongs to you, my Lord! But we are ashamed this day—we, the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, all Israel whether near or far, in whatever country where you’ve driven them because of their unfaithfulness when they broke faith with you.
8. Lord, we are ashamed—we, our kings, our leaders, and our parents who sinned against you.
9. Compassion and deep forgiveness belong to my Lord, our God, because we rebelled against him.
10. We didn’t listen to the voice of the Lord our God by following the teachings he gave us through his servants, the prophets.
11. All Israel broke your Instruction and turned away, ignoring your voice. Then the curse that was sworn long ago—the one written in the Instruction from Moses, God’s servant—swept over us because we sinned against God.
12. God confirmed the words he spoke against us and against our rulers, bringing great trouble on us. What happened in Jerusalem hasn’t happened anywhere else in the entire world!