⁶ Accordingly, couriers traveled throughout Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his officials, as the king had commanded, saying: “O people of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so that he may turn back to you, the remnant left from the hands of the kings of Assyria. ⁷ Do not be like your ancestors and your brothers who were unfaithful to the Lord, the God of their ancestors, so that he made them an object of horror, as you yourselves now see. ⁸ Do not be stiff-necked as your ancestors were, but submit yourselves to the Lord and come to his sanctuary that he has consecrated forever, and serve the Lord, your God, so that his fierce anger may turn away from you.