68
After these things had been done, the leaders came to me and said,
69
"The people of Israel and the rulers and the priests and the Levites have not put away from themselves the alien peoples of the land and their pollutions, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Edomites.
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For they and their descendants have married the daughters of these people, and the holy race has been mixed with the alien peoples of the land; and from the beginning of this matter the leaders and the nobles have been sharing in this iniquity."
71
As soon as I heard these things I tore my garments and my holy mantle, and pulled out hair from my head and beard, and sat down in anxiety and grief.
72
And all who were ever moved at the word of the Lord of Israel gathered around me, as I mourned over this iniquity, and I sat grief-stricken until the evening sacrifice.
73
Then I rose from my fast, with my garments and my holy mantle torn, and kneeling down and stretching out my hands to the Lord
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I said, "O Lord, I am ashamed and confused before your face.
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For our sins have risen higher than our heads, and our mistakes have mounted up to heaven
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from the times of our ancestors, and we are in great sin to this day.
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Because of our sins and the sins of our ancestors, we with our kindred and our kings and our priests were given over to the kings of the earth, to the sword and exile and plundering, in shame until this day.
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And now in some measure mercy has come to us from you, O Lord, to leave to us a root and a name in your holy place,