Bible Verses About Nation: Prayer for

For the leader. A psalm of the sons of Korach: ADONAI, you have shown favor to your land; you have restored the fortunes of Ya'akov,

taken away the guilt of your people, pardoned all their sin, (Selah)

withdrawn all your wrath, turned from your fierce anger.

Restore us, God of our salvation, renounce your displeasure with us.

Are you to stay angry with us forever? Will your fury last through all generations?

Won't you revive us again, so your people can rejoice in you?

Show us your grace, ADONAI; grant us your salvation.

ADONAI, look and see who it is you have thus tormented! Should women eat the fruit of their wombs, the children they have held in their hands? Should cohanim and prophets be slaughtered in the sanctuary of Adonai?

Youths and old men are lying on the ground in the streets, my unmarried women and young men have fallen by the sword. You killed them on the day of your anger, you slaughtered them without pity.

You have summoned my terrors from every direction, as on a festival day. On the day of ADONAI's anger, not one escaped; not one survived -the children I held in my arms and raised, my enemy has destroyed.

I turned to Adonai, God, to seek an answer, pleading with him in prayer, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.

I prayed to ADONAI my God and made this confession: "Please, Adonai, great and fearsome God, who keeps his covenant and extends grace to those who love him and observe his mitzvot!

We have sinned, done wrong, acted wickedly, rebelled and turned away from your mitzvot and rulings.

We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our leaders, our ancestors and to all the people of the land.

"To you, Adonai, belongs righteousness; but to us today belongs shame - to us, the men of Y'hudah, the inhabitants of Yerushalayim and all Isra'el, including those nearby and those far away, throughout all the countries where you have driven them; because they broke faith with you.

Yes, ADONAI, shame falls on us, our kings, our leaders and our ancestors; because we sinned against you.

It is for Adonai our God to show compassion and forgiveness, because we rebelled against him.

We didn't listen to the voice of ADONAI our God, so that we could live by his laws, which he presented to us through his servants the prophets.

Yes, all Isra'el flouted your Torah and turned away, unwilling to listen to your voice. Therefore the curse and oath written in the Torah of Moshe the servant of God was poured out on us, because we sinned against him.

He carried out the threats he spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us disaster so great that under all of heaven, nothing has been done like what has been done to Yerushalayim.

As written in the Torah of Moshe, this whole disaster came upon us. Yet we did not appease ADONAI our God by renouncing our wrongdoing and discerning your truth.

So ADONAI watched for the right moment to bring this disaster upon us, for ADONAI our God was just in everything he did, yet we didn't listen when he spoke.

"Now, Adonai our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand, thereby winning renown for yourself, as is the case today - we sinned, we acted wickedly.

Adonai, in keeping with all your justice, please allow your anger and fury to be turned away from your city Yerushalayim, your holy mountain; because it is due to our sins and the wrongdoings of our ancestors that Yerushalayim and your people have become objects of scorn among everyone around us.

Therefore, our God, listen to the prayer and pleadings of your servant; and cause your face to shine on your desolated sanctuary, for your own sake.