Come back to me, you wayward people. I want to cure your waywardness. ¹  Say, ²  ‘Here we are. We come to you because you are the Lord our God.

And I cried out, ¹  “We are doomed! ²  Our wound is severe! We once thought, ‘This is only an illness. And we will be able to bear it!’ ³ 

Lord, we confess that we have been wicked. We confess that our ancestors have done wrong. ¹  We have indeed ²  sinned against you.

Yes, a time is coming when watchmen ¹  will call out on the mountains of Ephraim, “Come! Let us go to Zion to worship the Lord our God!”’” ² 

Bring us back to yourself, O Lord, so that we may return ¹  to you; renew our life ²  as in days before, ³ 

I also gave them my Sabbaths ¹  as a reminder of our relationship, ²  so that they would know that I, the Lord, sanctify them. ³ 

Treat my Sabbaths as holy ¹  and they will be a reminder of our relationship, ²  and then you will know that I am the Lord your God.”

This is what the sovereign Lord says: The enemy has spoken against you, saying “Aha!” and, “The ancient heights ¹  have become our property!”’

Then compare our appearance ¹  with that of ²  the young men who are eating the royal delicacies; ³  deal with us ⁴  in light of what you see.”

We have not obeyed ¹  the LORD our God by living according to ²  his laws ³  that he set before us through his servants the prophets.

“So now, our God, accept ¹  the prayer and requests of your servant, and show favor to ²  your devastated sanctuary for your own sake. ³ 

You will be loyal to Jacob and extend your loyal love to Abraham, ¹  which you promised on oath to our ancestors ²  in ancient times. ³ 

Moreover, as for you, because of our covenant relationship secured with blood, I will release your prisoners from the waterless pit.

Then God said, “Let us make ¹  humankind ²  in our image, after our likeness, ³  so they may rule ⁴  over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, ⁵  and over all the creatures that move ⁶  on the earth.”

So in the morning the older daughter ¹  said to the younger, “Since I had sexual relations with my father last night, let’s make him drunk again tonight. ²  Then you go and have sexual relations with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” ³ 

But the men were afraid when they were brought to Joseph’s house. They said, “We are being brought in because of ¹  the money that was returned in our sacks last time. ²  He wants to capture us, ³  make us slaves, and take ⁴  our donkeys!”

But we replied, ‘We cannot go down there. ¹  If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go, ²  for we won’t be permitted to see the man’s face if our youngest brother is not with us.’

Tell him, ‘Your servants have taken care of cattle ¹  from our youth until now, both we and our fathers,’ so that you may live in the land of Goshen, ²  for everyone who takes care of sheep is disgusting ³  to the Egyptians.”

Our livestock must ¹  also go with us! Not a hoof is to be left behind! For we must take ²  these animals ³  to serve the Lord our God. Until we arrive there, we do not know what we must use to serve the Lord.” ⁴ 

Now if they should be married to one of the men ¹  from another Israelite tribe, their inheritance would be taken from the inheritance of our fathers and added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry. ²  As a result, it will be taken from the lot of our inheritance.