and said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, let my Lord ¹  go among us, for we ²  are a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”

Why has the Lord brought us into this land only to be killed by the sword, that our wives and our children should become plunder? Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?”

Then the Israelites said to him, “We will go along the highway, and if we ¹  or our cattle drink any of your water, we will pay for it. We will only pass through on our feet, without doing anything else.”

Secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those that are revealed belong to us and our descendants ¹  forever, so that we might obey all the words of this law.

When Joshua was near ¹  Jericho, ²  he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him holding a drawn sword. ³  Joshua approached him and asked him, “Are you on our side or allied with our enemies?” ⁴ 

Our leaders and all who live in our land told us, ‘Take provisions for your journey and go meet them. Tell them, “We are willing to be your subjects. ¹  Make a treaty with us.”’

The rulers of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate. They said, “Our god has handed Samson, our enemy, over to us.”

For our fathers were unfaithful; they did what is evil in the sight of ¹  the Lord our God and abandoned him! They turned ²  away from the Lord’s dwelling place and rejected him. ³ 

He has with him mere human strength, ¹  but the Lord our God is with us to help us and fight our battles!” The army ²  was encouraged by the words of King Hezekiah of Judah.

On the twelfth day of the first month we began traveling from the Ahava Canal to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us, and he delivered us from our enemy and from bandits ¹  along the way.

Then I ¹  said, “The thing that you are doing is wrong! ²  Should you not conduct yourselves ³  in the fear of our God in order to avoid the reproach of the Gentiles who are our enemies?

When all our enemies heard and all the nations who were around us saw ¹  this, they were greatly disheartened. ²  They knew that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.

You answer our prayers by performing awesome acts of deliverance, O God, our savior. ¹  All the ends of the earth trust in you, ²  as well as those living across the wide seas. ³ 

We have rebelled and tried to deceive the Lord; we turned back from following our God. We stir up ¹  oppression and rebellion; we tell lies we concocted in our minds. ² 

We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in your sight. ¹  We all wither like a leaf; our sins carry us away like the wind.

We know our noisy worship of false gods on the hills and mountains did not help us. ¹  We know that the Lord our God is the only one who can deliver Israel. ² 

I said, “Indeed, ¹  let them come quickly and sing a song of mourning for us. Let them wail loudly until tears stream from our own eyes and our eyelids overflow with water.

For the sound of wailing is soon to be heard in Zion. They will wail, ¹  ‘We are utterly ruined! ²  We are completely disgraced! For our houses have been torn down and we must leave our land.’” ³ 

For after we turned away from you we repented. After we came to our senses ¹  we beat our breasts in sorrow. ²  We are ashamed and humiliated because of the disgraceful things we did previously.’ ³ 

King Zedekiah sent ¹  Jehucal ²  son of Shelemiah and the priest Zephaniah ³  son of Maaseiah to the prophet Jeremiah. He told them to say, “Please pray to the Lord our God on our behalf.”