16
But you must not lay down conditions for the Lord our God! Do you think that he is like one of us? Do you think you can bargain with him or force him to make a decision?
17
No! Instead, we should ask God for his help and wait patiently for him to rescue us. If he wants to, he will answer our cry for help.
18
We do not worship gods made with human hands. Not one of our clans, tribes, towns, or cities has ever done that, even though our ancestors used to do so.
19
That is why God let their enemies kill them and take everything they had. It was a great defeat!
20
But since we worship no other God but the Lord, we can hope that he will not reject us or any of our people.
21
"If our town is taken by the enemy, the entire region of Judah will then fall, and our Temple in Jerusalem will be looted. And God will make us pay with our lives for allowing the Temple to be defiled.
22
He will hold us responsible for the slaughter and captivity of our people and for the destruction of the land we have inherited. We will be despised and mocked by the people in those nations to which we will be taken as slaves.
23
We are not going to win the favor of our enemies by surrendering to them now. If we do surrender, the Lord our God will see that we are put to shame.
24
"No, my friends, we should set an example for our own people. Not only their lives, but the fate of the Temple and the altar depend on us.
25
The Lord our God is putting us to the test, just as he tested our ancestors, and we should be thankful for that.
26
Remember how he put Abraham and Isaac to the test, and what happened to Jacob while he was working as a shepherd for his uncle Laban in Mesopotamia.