<p class="poetry">O Lord, listen to me!<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Pay attention to<n id="2" /> my plea for mercy!p>

and told them: &#8220;You have carried out all the instructions of Moses the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s servant, and you have obeyed all I have told you.<n id="1" />

I said to you, &#8220;I am the <sc>Lordsc> your God! Do not worship<n id="1" /> the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are now living!&#8221; But you have disobeyed me.&#8217;&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

<p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> answered, &#8220;This has happened because these people have rejected my laws which I gave them. They have not obeyed me or followed those laws.<n id="1" />

For I solemnly warned your ancestors to obey me.<n id="1" /> I warned them again and again,<n id="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.

<p class="poetry">While you were feeling secure I gave you warning.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">But you said, &#8220;I refuse to listen to you.&#8221;p> <p class="poetry">That is the way you have acted from your earliest history onward.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Indeed, you have never paid attention to me.p>

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

I also explicitly commanded them:<n id="1" /> &#8220;Obey me. If you do, I<n id="2" /> will be your God and you will be my people. Live exactly the way I tell you<n id="3" /> and things will go well with you.&#8221;

Those are the terms that I charged your ancestors<n id="1" /> to keep<n id="2" /> when I brought them out of Egypt, that place which was like an iron-smelting furnace.<n id="3" /> I said at that time,<n id="4" /> &#8220;Obey me and carry out the terms of the agreement<n id="5" /> exactly as I commanded you. If you do,<n id="6" /> you will be my people and I will be your God.<n id="7" />