A Call to Repentance

• 12 “And even now,” declares[fn] Yahweh, “return to me with all your heart,
• with fasting, and weeping, and wailing.”
• 13 Rend your hearts[fn] and not your garments, and return to Yahweh your God,
  • because he is gracious and compassionate,
• slow to anger[fn] and great in loyal love,
  • and relenting from harm.
  • 14 Who knows whether he will turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him,
• an offering and a libation,
  • for Yahweh your God?
  • 15 Blow the trumpet[fn] in Zion, sanctify a fast, call an assembly;
  • 16 gather the people, consecrate the assembly; assemble the elders, gather the children,
    • even those who are breast-feeding;
• let the bridegroom come out from his private room,
  • and the bride from her canopy.
  • 17 Between the colonnade and the altar, let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, weep.
• And let them say, “Take pity, Yahweh, on your people.
  • Do not make your inheritance a reproach,
    • a byword among the nations.
• Why should they say among the nations,
  • ‘Where is their God?’ ”