We should lie down in shame and let our disgrace cover us. We and our ancestors have always sinned against the LORD our God; we have never obeyed his commands."

"I hear the people of Israel say in grief, ' LORD, we were like an untamed animal, but you taught us to obey. Bring us back; we are ready to return to you, the LORD our God.

"Israel, you are my dearest child, the one I love best. Whenever I mention your name, I think of you with love. My heart goes out to you; I will be merciful.

"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.

"I have now given you a choice between a blessing and a curse. When all these things have happened to you, and you are living among the nations where the LORD your God has scattered you, you will remember the choice I gave you.

then the LORD your God will have mercy on you. He will bring you back from the nations where he has scattered you, and he will make you prosperous again.

Each one will say in public, "I have sinned. I have not done right, but God spared me.

He kept me from going to the world of the dead, and I am still alive."

You will never succeed in life if you try to hide your sins. Confess them and give them up; then God will show mercy to you.

I will get up and go to my father and say, "Father, I have sinned against God and against you.

So he got up and started back to his father. "He was still a long way from home when his father saw him; his heart was filled with pity, and he ran, threw his arms around his son, and kissed him.

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.

Look up at the hilltops. Is there any place where you have not acted like a prostitute? You waited for lovers along the roadside, as an Arab waits for victims in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution.

When Josiah was king, the LORD said to me, "Have you seen what Israel, that unfaithful woman, has done? She has turned away from me, and on every high hill and under every green tree she has acted like a prostitute.

The Sovereign LORD says, "Israel, long ago you rejected my authority; you refused to obey me and worship me. On every high hill and under every green tree you worshiped fertility gods.

Israel, don't wear your feet out, or let your throat become dry from chasing after other gods. But you say, 'No! I can't turn back. I have loved foreign gods and will go after them.' "

"But you took advantage of your beauty and fame to sleep with everyone who came along.

by the side of every road you built places to worship idols and practice prostitution.

You dragged your beauty through the mud. You offered yourself to everyone who came by, and you were more of a prostitute every day.

In the land that you are taking, destroy all the places where the people worship their gods on high mountains, on hills, and under green trees.