Isaiah 42:23

Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.

But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

So teach us to count our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

This is what Yahweh who made you, and formed you from the womb, who will help you says: “Don’t be afraid, Jacob my servant; and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you!

For Yahweh says, “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you will nurse. You will be carried on her side, and will be dandled on her knees.

Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Oh that there were such a heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!

I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.

All your children will be taught by Yahweh; and your children’s peace will be great.

but declared first to them of Damascus, at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance.

For godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world produces death.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.

You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods: on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree.

Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities.

Oh that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!

Those who love your law have great peace. Nothing causes them to stumble.

“But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham my friend,

I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins.

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him, to our God, for he will freely pardon.

But now, Yahweh, you are our Father. We are the clay and you our potter. We all are the work of your hand.

“Keep your feet from being bare, and your throat from thirst. But you said, ‘It is in vain. No, for I have loved strangers, and I will go after them.’

Moreover, Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and has played the prostitute there.

Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against Yahweh our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. We have not obeyed Yahweh our God’s voice.”

O Yahweh, don’t your eyes look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return.

Therefore don’t be afraid, O Jacob my servant, says Yahweh. Don’t be dismayed, Israel. For, behold, I will save you from afar, and save your offspring from the land of their captivity. Jacob will return, and will be quiet and at ease. No one will make him afraid.

They have turned their backs to me, and not their faces. Although I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive instruction.

“How can you be quiet, since Yahweh has given you a command? Against Ashkelon, and against the seashore, there has he appointed it.”

I will go and return to my place, until they acknowledge their offense, and seek my face. In their affliction they will seek me earnestly.”

He has given help to Israel, his servant, that he might remember mercy,

saying, “If you, even you, had known today the things which belong to your peace! But now, they are hidden from your eyes.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.

For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

There is a river, the streams of which make the city of God glad, the holy place of the tents of the Most High.

Yahweh remembers us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron.

But whoever listens to me will dwell securely, and will be at ease, without fear of harm.”

Behold, Yahweh’s name comes from far away, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full of indignation. His tongue is as a devouring fire.

I am Yahweh, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.”

For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel my chosen, I have called you by your name. I have given you a title, though you have not known me.

You said, ‘I will be a princess forever,’ so that you didn’t lay these things to your heart, nor did you remember the results.

Oh that you had listened to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

you who inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every green tree; who kill the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?

“For long ago I broke off your yoke, and burst your bonds. You said, ‘I will not serve;’ for on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed yourself, playing the prostitute.

“Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with? You have sat waiting for them by the road, as an Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness.

The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end of it?

It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I intend to do to them; that they may each return from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

Her filthiness was in her skirts. She didn’t remember her latter end. Therefore she has come down astoundingly. She has no comforter. “See, Yahweh, my affliction; for the enemy has magnified himself.”

When I tell the wicked, ‘You will surely die;’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; that wicked man will die in his iniquity; but I will require his blood at your hand.

Tell them, ‘ “As I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why will you die, house of Israel?” ’

Contend with your mother! Contend, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband; and let her put away her prostitution from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts;

But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Listen now to what Yahweh says: “Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear what you have to say.

She didn’t obey the voice. She didn’t receive correction. She didn’t trust in Yahweh. She didn’t draw near to her God.

‘Consider, please, from this day and backward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, since the day that the foundation of Yahweh’s temple was laid, consider it.

“Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”

From that time, Jesus began to preach, and to say, “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

for this people’s heart has grown callous, their ears are dull of hearing, they have closed their eyes; or else perhaps they might perceive with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and would turn again; and I would heal them.’

and said, “Most certainly I tell you, unless you turn, and become as little children, you will in no way enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

that ‘seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest perhaps they should turn again, and their sins should be forgiven them.’ ”

He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.

I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent,

remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and perseverance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father.

and to give relief to you who are afflicted with us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire,

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your offspring after you.

Be careful, lest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he made with you, and make yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which Yahweh your God has forbidden you.

Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!

Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again to Yahweh, and they testified against them; but they would not listen.

“Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against you, cast your law behind their back, killed your prophets that testified against them to turn them again to you, and they committed awful blasphemies.

They shall be abundantly satisfied with the abundance of your house. You will make them drink of the river of your pleasures.

you offspring of Abraham, his servant, you children of Jacob, his chosen ones.

Let them praise Yahweh for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds to the children of men!

He who conceals his sins doesn’t prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

But now Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel, says: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine.

Yet listen now, Jacob my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen.

Remember these things, Jacob and Israel; for you are my servant. I have formed you. You are my servant. Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.

Rain, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, that it may produce salvation, and let it cause righteousness to spring up with it. I, Yahweh, have created it.

“Remember this, and show yourselves men. Bring it to mind again, you transgressors.

Turn your ear, and come to me. Hear, and your soul will live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against Yahweh your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,’ says Yahweh.”

A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations. He is on his way. He has gone out from his place, to make your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.

Hear, and give ear. Don’t be proud, for Yahweh has spoken.

We acknowledge, Yahweh, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against you.

As the partridge that sits on eggs which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches, and not by right. In the middle of his days, they will leave him. At his end, he will be a fool.

“Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, “Will you not receive instruction to listen to my words?” says Yahweh.

Yahweh’s voice calls to the city, and wisdom sees your name: “Listen to the rod, and he who appointed it.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, like a hen gathers her own brood under her wings, and you refused!

“He said to him, ‘If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rises from the dead.’ ”

“Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord,

for God’s Kingdom is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.