Lamentations 5:21

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

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.”

Yahweh says: “Behold, I will reverse the captivity of Jacob’s tents, and have compassion on his dwelling places. The city will be built on its own hill, and the palace will be inhabited in its own place.

You have turned my mourning into dancing for me. You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness,

Won’t you revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?

“Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face. Should I be inquired of at all by them?

“I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.

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.

Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to Yahweh concerning the frogs which he had brought on Pharaoh.

All the tithe of the herds or the flocks, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth shall be holy to Yahweh.

Yahweh make his face to shine on you, and be gracious to you.

Jephthah came to Mizpah to his house; and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child. Besides her he had neither son nor daughter.

Many say, “Who will show us any good?” Yahweh, let the light of your face shine on us.

Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.

Turn us again, God. Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.

Let your work appear to your servants, your glory to their children.

Yet the people have not turned to him who struck them, neither have they sought Yahweh of Armies.

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

“I have struck your children in vain. They received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

They will come from the cities of Judah, and from the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the lowland, from the hill country, and from the South, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, meal offerings, and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving, to Yahweh’s house.

Yes, all Israel have transgressed your law, turning aside, that they should not obey your voice. “Therefore the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us; for we have sinned against him.

He shall stand, and shall shepherd in the strength of Yahweh, in the majesty of the name of Yahweh his God: and they will live, for then he will be great to the ends of the earth.

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.

Letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to plunder their possessions.

So the couriers who rode on royal horses went out, hastened and pressed on by the king’s commandment. The decree was given out in the citadel of Susa.

“Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.

“But those who are godless in heart lay up anger. They don’t cry for help when he binds them.

All this has come on us, yet we haven’t forgotten you. We haven’t been false to your covenant.

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

God, you have rejected us. You have broken us down. You have been angry. Restore us, again.

Why have you broken down its walls, so that all those who pass by the way pluck it?

Let me understand the teaching of your precepts! Then I will meditate on your wondrous works.

My flesh trembles for fear of you. I am afraid of your judgments.

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.

Those who will be of you will build the old waste places. You will raise up the foundations of many generations. You will be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Paths with Dwellings.

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.

You shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

Thanksgiving will proceed out of them with the voice of those who make merry. I will multiply them, and they will not be few; I will also glorify them, and they will not be small.

They will come with weeping. I will lead them with petitions. I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they won’t stumble; for I am a father to Israel. Ephraim is my firstborn.

Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance; the young men and the old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.

“I have surely heard Ephraim grieving thus, ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as an untrained calf. Turn me, and I will be turned; for you are Yahweh my God.

I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first.

One runner will run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter.

All the trees of the field will know that I, Yahweh, have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree flourish. “ ‘I, Yahweh, have spoken and have done it.’ ”

For in my holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel,” says the Lord Yahweh, “there all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land. There I will accept them, and there I will require your offerings and the first fruits of your offerings, with all your holy things.

I will multiply man and animal on you. They will increase and be fruitful. I will cause you to be inhabited as you were before, and you will do better than at your beginnings. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.

“Now therefore, our God, listen to the prayer of your servant, and to his petitions, and cause your face to shine on your sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake.

The pride of Israel testifies to his face; yet they haven’t returned to Yahweh their God, nor sought him, for all this.

The captives of this army of the children of Israel, who are among the Canaanites, will possess even to Zarephath; and the captives of Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad, will possess the cities of the Negev.

I heard, and my body trembled. My lips quivered at the voice. Rottenness enters into my bones, and I tremble in my place, because I must wait quietly for the day of trouble, for the coming up of the people who invade us.

Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the Lord and God which he purchased with his own blood.

This is the boldness which we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he listens to us.

As many as I love, I reprove and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent.

Pul the king of Assyria came against the land, and Menahem gave Pul one thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand.

In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria came and took Ijon, Abel Beth Maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali; and he carried them captive to Assyria.

Tilgath Pilneser king of Assyria came to him, and gave him trouble, but didn’t strengthen him.

“Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away. They see no good.

Yahweh, you have heard the desire of the humble. You will prepare their heart. You will cause your ear to hear,

May God be merciful to us, bless us, and cause his face to shine on us.

Turn us again, God of Armies. Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.

Turn us again, Yahweh God of Armies. Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.

He has responded to the prayer of the destitute, and has not despised their prayer.

When you offer your gifts, when you make your sons pass through the fire, do you pollute yourselves with all your idols to this day? Should I be inquired of by you, house of Israel? As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will not be inquired of by you!

As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come on us. Yet we have not entreated the favor of Yahweh our God, that we should turn from our iniquities and have discernment in your truth.

“I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them back; for I have mercy on them; and they will be as though I had not cast them off: for I am Yahweh their God, and I will hear them.

I will sow them among the peoples; and they will remember me in far countries; and they will live with their children, and will return.

“Which of you men, if you had one hundred sheep, and lost one of them, wouldn’t leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one that was lost, until he found it?

In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

Let’s therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace for help in time of need.

Hear me, Yahweh, hear me, that this people may know that you, Yahweh, are God, and that you have turned their heart back again.”

So the couriers went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, “You children of Israel, turn again to Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may return to the remnant of you that have escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria.

Turn us, God of our salvation, and cause your indignation toward us to cease.

I will build you again, and you will be built, O virgin of Israel. You will again be adorned with your tambourines, and will go out in the dances of those who make merry.

Yahweh says: “Yet again there will be heard in this place, about which you say, ‘It is waste, without man and without animal, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without animal,’

In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland, in the cities of the South, in the land of Benjamin, in the places around Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, the flocks will again pass under the hands of him who counts them,” says Yahweh.

“ ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “For this, moreover, I will be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them: I will increase them with men like a flock.

In that day I will raise up the tent of David who is fallen, and close up its breaches, and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old;

Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your heritage, who dwell by themselves in a forest, in the middle of fertile pasture land, let them feed; in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.

Yahweh, I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds, Yahweh. Renew your work in the middle of the years. In the middle of the years make it known. In wrath, you remember mercy.

Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to Yahweh, as in the days of old, and as in ancient years.

“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,