Confession and Restoration. The order of thought is confession by the exiles of the sin of their own and of previous generations, Yahweh's memory of His ancient covenant, and His (implied) deliverance of His people. The order is simplified if Leviticus 26:41-43 is regarded as an insertion; if (Leviticus 26:41), which should be translated or, suggests this. The double mention of the covenant (note the order of the names in Leviticus 26:42), and the reference to the respite of the land (cf. Leviticus 26:34 f.), are arresting, but not related to the rest of the section. On confession, cf. Leviticus 5:5, Leviticus 16:21. Here the confession is of the whole nation's disobedience, past and present; until this is called forth by suffering, God's wrath remains. In Ezekiel's section on restoration, confession is replaced by self-loathing (after, not before, the return; Ezekiel 36:31). Ezekiel expressly denies the motive for their sakes, and the ancient covenant (Leviticus 26:45, contrast Ezekiel 36:22) and the influence of the past on the present, both for evil and good, is unmentioned by him.
Leviticus 26:40-45
40 If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;
41 And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:
42 Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.
43 The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.
44 And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God.
45 But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.