“O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face to you, my God! For our iniquities have climbed higher than our heads, and our guilt extends to the heavens. 9:7 From the days of our fathers until this very day our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities we, along with our kings and 2 priests, have been delivered over by the local kings 3 to sword, captivity, plunder, and embarrassment – right up to the present time.
9:13 “Everything that has happened to us has come about because of our wicked actions and our great guilt. Even so, our God, you have exercised restraint 4 toward our iniquities and have given us a remnant such as this.
1 tn Heb “I said.”
2 tc The MT lacks “and” here, but see the LXX and Vulgate.
3 tn Heb “the kings of the lands.”
4 tn Heb “held back downwards from”; KJV “hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve” (NIV, NRSV, NLT all similar).