24. Instead, you were ever rebellious, from the day when I first began to know you.
25. And so, I lay prostrate before the Lord for forty days and nights, as I humbly begged him, lest he destroy you, just as he had threatened to do.
26. And praying, I said: 'O Lord God, do not destroy your people and your inheritance, whom you have redeemed in your greatness, whom you have led away from Egypt with a strong hand.
27. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not look upon the stubbornness of this people, nor upon their wickedness and sinfulness.