What is the context?
The prayer reaches the community’s present distress. The people ask the great and faithful God not to regard their hardships as a small matter, naming the suffering of rulers, priests, prophets, ancestors and the whole people.
They acknowledge that God has dealt faithfully while they have acted wickedly. Even in the land given to their fathers, they remain subject to kings who take its produce and rule over their bodies and livestock.
The prayer ends with a binding written agreement, sealed with the names of leaders, Levites and priests. Confession is to be followed by a recorded commitment to obey; the names and promises are set out in the next chapter.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Henry reads the appeal as dependence on undeserved mercy, with responsibility for sin honestly acknowledged. Gill explains the continuing servitude in relation to Persian rule and understands the written agreement as a binding promise to observe God’s Law. Returning to the land has not yet removed every form of hardship or foreign control.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.