And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of intense spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before Jehovah.

For we die the death and are like water poured on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away a soul; but has devised plans, so that His banished ones are not thrust away from Him.

My friends scorn me; my eyes pour out tears to God.

I am weary from my groaning; all night I make my bed swim; I dissolve my couch with my tears.

My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day, Where is your God?

Rivers of water run down from my eyes, because they do not keep Your Law.

Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

My eyes fail with tears; my stomach is upset; my liver is poured on the ground for the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the children and the babies faint in the streets of the city.

Their heart cried unto the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night; give yourself no rest. Let not the daughter of your eye be silent.

My eyes flow and do not cease, with no stopping,

And Jehoshaphat feared, and set his face to seek Jehovah, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions.

So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He was entreated of us.

Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, in sackcloth, and earth upon them.

And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of Jehovah their God for a fourth part of the day; and for another fourth they confessed and prostrated themselves before Jehovah their God.

And I set my face toward the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.

we have sinned and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from Your commandments and from Your judgments.

Yet even now turn to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning, declares Jehovah.

And the Word of Jehovah came to Jonah the second time, saying,

And Jonah rose up and went to Nineveh according to the Word of Jehovah. And Nineveh was a great city before God, of three days' journey.

And the men of Nineveh believed in God, and they called a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

And he cried and proclaimed in Nineveh by the decree of the king and of his nobles, saying, Do not let man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them feed nor let them drink water.

Who knows if God may turn, and have compassion, and turn away from His burning anger, that we not perish?

But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me,

And the children of Israel cried out unto Jehovah, saying, We have sinned against You, because we have both forsaken our God and served the Baals!

yet when they have returned in their minds in the land where they have been carried captive, and have repented in their hearts, and made supplication to You in the land of those holding them captive, saying, We have sinned and done perversely, we have committed wickedness;

At the evening sacrifice I arose from my fasting; and having torn my garment and my robe, I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to Jehovah my God.

Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt, and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to shame of faces, to this day.

For we were slaves; yet our God did not forsake us in our bondage; but He extended mercy to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to revive us, to set up the house of our God, to rebuild its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.

Then he observes men and says, I have sinned, and perverted what was right; and it has not been equaled to me.

Behold, I have been vile! What shall I answer You? I have put my hand to my mouth.

Therefore I despise myself, and have repented in dust and ashes.

There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your anger, nor peace within myself because of my sin.

My wounds have stunk and festered, because of my foolishness.

For my loins are filled with inflammation, and there is no soundness in my flesh.

We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.

Only, acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against Jehovah your God and have scattered your ways to strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed My voice, says Jehovah.

Return, O backsliding children, says Jehovah; for I am married to you. And I will take you, one from a city, and two from a family; and I will bring you to Zion.

Surely after I was turned back, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh. I was ashamed, yes, even humiliated, because I bore the reproach of my youth.

I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before you,

And the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and Jehovah delivered Cushan-Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed over Cushan-Rishathaim.

Therefore You delivered them into the hand of their enemies, who distressed them; and in the time of their trouble, when they cried out to You, You heard from Heaven; and according to Your abundant mercies You gave them deliverers who saved them out of the hand of their enemies.

Will you judge them, son of man, will you judge them? Then cause them to know the abominations of their fathers.