1   So the Lord made good the warning he had given to us, to our magistrates in Israel, our kings and our rulers, and the men of Israel and Judah. 2   Nowhere under heaven have such deeds been done as were done in Jerusalem, thus fulfilling what was foretold in the law of Moses, 3   that we should eat the flesh of our children, one his own son and another his own daughter. 4   The Lord made our nation subject to all the kingdoms round us, our land a waste, our name a byword to all the nations among whom he had scattered our people. 5   Instead of rising to the top, they sank to the bottom, because we sinned against the Lord our God and did not listen to his voice. 6   The Lord our God is in the right; but on us and our fathers the shame rests to this very day. 7   All these evils of which the Lord warned us have come about. 8   Yet we did not entreat the Lord that we might all turn away from the thoughts of our wicked hearts. 9   The Lord kept strict watch and brought these evils on our heads, because he is just; he laid all these commandments upon us, 10   but we did not listen to his voice or follow the precepts which he gave us.

11   And now, Lord God of Israel, who didst bring thy people out of Egypt with a mighty hand, with signs and portents, with great power and arm uplifted, winning for thyself a renown that lives on to this day: 12   by our sin, our godlessness, and our injustice we have broken all thy commandments, O Lord our God. 13   Be angry with us no longer, for we are left a mere handful among the heathen where thou hast scattered us. 14   Listen, O Lord, to our prayer and our entreaty, deliver us for thy own sake, and grant us favour with those who have taken us into exile, 15   so that the whole earth may know that thou art

A message to a conquered people the Lord our God, who hast named Israel and his posterity as thy own.

16   O Lord, look down from thy holy dwelling and think of us. Turn thy ear to us, Lord, and hear us; open thine eyes and see. 17   The dead are in their graves, the breath is gone from their bodies; it is not they who can sing the Lord's praises or applaud his justice; 18   it is living men, mourning their fall from greatness, walking the earth bent and feeble, blind and famished—it is these who will sing thy praises, O Lord, and applaud thy justice.

19   Not for any just deeds of our fathers and our kings do we lay before thee our plea for pity, O Lord our God. 20   Thou hast vented upon us that wrath and anger of which thou didst warn us through thy servants the prophets who said: 21   ‘These are the words of the Lord: Bow your shoulders and serve the king of Babylon and you shall remain in the land that I gave to your fathers; 22   but if you do not listen to the Lord and serve the king of Babylon, 23   then I will banish from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah all sounds of joy and merriment, the voice of bride and bridegroom; the whole land shall lie waste and uninhabited.’ 24   But we did not obey thy command to serve the king of Babylon. And so thou didst make good the warning given through thy servants the prophets: the bones of our kings and of our fathers have been taken from their resting-place; 25   and there they lie, exposed to the heat by day and the frost by night. They died a painful death by famine, sword, and disease. ^note 26   And because of the wickedness of Israel and Judah the house that was named as thine has become what it is today.

27   Yet thou hast shown us, O Lord our God, all thy wonted forbearance and great mercy. 28   For this is what thou didst promise through thy servant Moses, on the day thou didst command him to write thy law in the presence of the Israelites: 29   ‘If you will not listen to my voice, this great swarming multitude will be reduced to a tiny remnant among the heathen where I will scatter them. 30   I know they will not hear me, this stubborn people, but in the land of their exile 31   they will come to their senses and know that I am the Lord their God. 32   I will give them a mind to understand and ears to hear. Then they will praise me in the land of their exile and will turn their thoughts to me; 33   they will repent of their stubbornness and their wicked deeds, for they will recall how their fathers sinned against the

A message to a conquered people Lord. 34   Then I will restore them to the land that I swore to give to their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they shall rule over it. And I will increase their number: they shall never dwindle away. 35   I will enter into an eternal covenant with them, that I will become their God and they shall become my people. Never again will I remove my people Israel from the land that I have given them.’

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