O Lord, listen to me! ¹  Pay attention to ²  my plea for mercy!

and told them: “You have carried out all the instructions of Moses the Lord’s servant, and you have obeyed all I have told you. ¹ 

I said to you, “I am the Lord your God! Do not worship ¹  the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are now living!” But you have disobeyed me.’” ² 

The Lord answered, “This has happened because these people have rejected my laws which I gave them. They have not obeyed me or followed those laws. ¹ 

For I solemnly warned your ancestors to obey me. ¹  I warned them again and again, ²  ever since I delivered them out of Egypt until this very day.

But if that nation does what displeases me and does not obey me, then I will cancel the good I promised to do to it.

While you were feeling secure I gave you warning. ¹  But you said, “I refuse to listen to you.” That is the way you have acted from your earliest history onward. ²  Indeed, you have never paid attention to me.

For all the people have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have tempted ¹  me now these ten times, ²  and have not obeyed me, ³ 

I also explicitly commanded them: ¹  “Obey me. If you do, I ²  will be your God and you will be my people. Live exactly the way I tell you ³  and things will go well with you.”

Those are the terms that I charged your ancestors ¹  to keep ²  when I brought them out of Egypt, that place which was like an iron-smelting furnace. ³  I said at that time, ⁴  “Obey me and carry out the terms of the agreement ⁵  exactly as I commanded you. If you do, ⁶  you will be my people and I will be your God. ⁷