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Then the Lord will strengthen us and be our guide. Nebuchadnezzar and his son Belshazzar will protect us, and we will be loyal to them as long as we live; then they will be pleased with us.
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We ask you also to pray to the Lord God for us, because we have sinned against him, and he is still angry with us.
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Please read this book that we are sending you and make your own confession of sin in the Temple on the first day of the Festival of Shelters and on other holy days of assembly.
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This is the confession you should make: "The Lord our God is righteous, but we are still covered with shame. All of us - the people of Judah, the people of Jerusalem,
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our kings, our rulers, our priests, our prophets, and our ancestors have been put to shame,
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because we have sinned against the Lord our God
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and have disobeyed him. We did not listen to him or live according to his commandments.
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From the day the Lord brought our ancestors out of Egypt until the present day, we have continued to be unfaithful to him, and we have not hesitated to disobey him.
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Long ago, when the Lord led our ancestors out of Egypt, so that he could give us a rich and fertile land, he pronounced curses against us through his servant Moses. And today we are suffering because of those curses.
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