“To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him, nor have we obeyed the voice of YHWH our God, to walk in his laws which he set before us by his servants the prophets.”
He declares that YHWH is the compassionate and forgiving One. This is literally ‘compassions and forgivenesses'. The thought is of God's continual acts of compassion and forgiveness, resulting from the fact of His compassion and His willingness to forgive.
Had it not been for His compassion and forgiveness they would have been totally destroyed, for they had rebelled against Him, they had not obeyed His voice, and they had not walked in His laws which had been fully explained to them by God's servants the prophets. They were thus without excuse.
We can apply the same idea to ourselves. Before we point the finger at Israel we must look at our own lives.