"When your people sin against you---and there is no one who does not sin---and in your anger you let their enemies defeat them and take them as prisoners to some other land, even if that land is far away,

Forgive all their sins and their rebellion against you, and make their enemies treat them with kindness.

Can any human being be really pure? Can anyone be right with God?

And we drink evil as if it were water; yes, we are corrupt; we are worthless.

If you kept a record of our sins, who could escape being condemned?

Don't put me, your servant, on trial; no one is innocent in your sight.

Can anyone really say that his conscience is clear, that he has gotten rid of his sin?

There is no one on earth who does what is right all the time and never makes a mistake.

All of us often make mistakes. But if a person never makes a mistake in what he says, he is perfect and is also able to control his whole being.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and there is no truth in us.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make a liar out of God, and his word is not in us.

Then the land will enjoy the years of complete rest that you would not give it; it will lie abandoned and get its rest while you are in exile in the land of your enemies.

"I will make those of you who are in exile so terrified that the sound of a leaf blowing in the wind will make you run. You will run as if you were being pursued in battle, and you will fall when there is no enemy near you.

You will die in exile, swallowed up by the land of your enemies.

"But your descendants will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors, who resisted me and rebelled against me,

I will remember my covenant with Jacob and with Isaac and with Abraham, and I will renew my promise to give my people the land.

But even then, when they are still in the land of their enemies, I will not completely abandon them or destroy them. That would put an end to my covenant with them, and I am the LORD their God.

I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that, if you disobey me, you will soon disappear from the land. You will not live very long in the land across the Jordan that you are about to occupy. You will be completely destroyed.

The LORD will scatter you among other nations, where only a few of you will survive.

"The LORD will take you and your king away to a foreign land, where neither you nor your ancestors ever lived before; there you will serve gods made of wood and stone.

"The LORD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will serve gods made of wood and stone, gods that neither you nor your ancestors have ever worshiped before.

Your life will always be in danger. Day and night you will be filled with terror, and you will live in constant fear of death.

The LORD will send you back to Egypt in ships, even though he said that you would never have to go there again. There you will try to sell yourselves to your enemies as slaves, but no one will want to buy you."

Then the whole world will ask, 'Why did the LORD do this to their land? What was the reason for his fierce anger?'

They served other gods that they had never worshiped before, gods that the LORD had forbidden them to worship.

The LORD became furiously angry, and in his great anger he uprooted them from their land and threw them into a foreign land, and there they are today.'

which was the ninth year of the reign of Hoshea, the Assyrian emperor captured Samaria, took the Israelites to Assyria as prisoners, and settled some of them in the city of Halah, some near the Habor River in the district of Gozan and some in the cities of Media.

The LORD was angry with the Israelites and banished them from his sight, leaving only the kingdom of Judah.

until at last the LORD banished them from his sight, as he had warned through his servants the prophets that he would do. So the people of Israel were taken into exile to Assyria, where they still live.

Everything else that Menahem did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel.

You, Lord, always do what is right, but we have always brought disgrace on ourselves. This is true of all of us who live in Judea and in Jerusalem and of all the Israelites whom you scattered in countries near and far because they were unfaithful to you.

You are merciful and forgiving, although we have rebelled against you.

All Israel broke your laws and refused to listen to what you said. We sinned against you, and so you brought on us the curses that are written in the Law of Moses, your servant.

giving us all the punishment described in the Law of Moses. But even now, O LORD our God, we have not tried to please you by turning from our sins or by following your truth.

Some will be killed by the sword, and others will be taken as prisoners to all countries; and the heathen will trample over Jerusalem until their time is up.