1 To the chief musician, a psalm of David, (51:2) When Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in unto Bathsheba. (51:3) Be gracious unto me, O God, according to thy kindness: according to the greatness of thy mercies blot out my transgressions.
2 (51:4) Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
17 And may the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; and the work of our hands do thou firmly establish upon us: yea, the work of our handsfirmly establish thou it.
18 Who is a god like unto thee, pardoning iniquity, and forgiving transgression to the residue of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in kindness.
1 A song of the degrees. Out of the depths have I called thee, O Lord.
2 Lord, listen to my voice: let thy ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
5 Well will it be with the man who is kind, and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with justice.
18 And therefore will the Lord wait, to be gracious unto you, and therefore will he exalt himself, to have mercy upon you; for a God of justice is the Lord: happy are all those that wait for him.
11 (40:12) Do thou, O Lord, not withhold thy mercies from me: let thy kindness and thy truth continually watch over me.
1 One could say, Behold, if a man send away his wife, and she go from him, and become another mans, can he return unto her again? would not that land be greatly polluted? and thou hast played the harlot with many companions, and wilt yet return to me, saith the Lord.
2 Lift up thy eyes unto the mountaintops, and see where thou hast not been lain with. On public roads hast thou sat for them, as the Arab in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy incests and with thy wickedness.
3 And though the early showers were withholden, and the latter rain came not: yet hadst thou a forehead of an incestuous wife, thou refusedst to feel shame.
4 Wilt thou not from this time call out unto mem My father, the guide of my youth art thou?
5 Will he bear grudge for ever? will he keep it to eternity? Behold, thou hast spoken this, and yet hast done the things that are evil as much as thou wast able.
6 And the Lord said unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen what backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and hath played the harlot there.
7 And I thought that after she had done all these things, she would return unto me. But she returned not. And this saw her treacherous sister Judah.
8 And I saw, that, although because backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had sent her away, and given her bill of divorce unto her, still treacherous Judah her sister feared not, but went and played herself the harlot also.
9 And it came to pass through her giddy incest, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stone and with wood.
10 And yet with all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not returned unto me with all her heart, but with falsehood, saith the Lord.
11 And the Lord said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself through the treacherous Judah.
12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord: I will not cause my anger to fall upon you; for I am full of kindness, saith the Lord, I will not hear grudge for ever.
13 Only acknowledge thy iniquity, that against the Lord thy God thou hast rebelled, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and that unto my voice ye have not hearkened, saith the Lord.
14 Return, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am become your husband; and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and bring you to Zion:
15 And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, and they shall feed you with knowledge and intelligence.
16 And it shall come to pass, when ye multiply and increase in the land, in those days, saith the Lord, that men shall not say any more, "The ark of the covenant of the Lord;" nor shall it come any more to mind; nor shall they remember it; nor shall they mention it; nor shall any thing be done any more with it.
17 At that time shall they call Jerusalem, The throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem: and they shall not walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart.
18 In those days shall the house of Judah walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north unto the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers.
19 But I had thought, How shall I establish thee among the other sons of man, and give thee a desirable land, a heritage of glory of the hosts of nations? and I thought, My father thou wouldst call me, and that from me thou wouldst not turn away.
20 But truly as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord.
21 A voice is now heard upon the mountaintops, the supplicatory weeping of the children of Israel; for they have perverted their way, they have forgotten the Lord their God.
22 Return, ye backsliding children, I will heal your backslidings. "Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the Lord our God.
23 Truly deceptive was what we hoped for from the hills, and the multitude on the mountains; truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.
24 And shame hath devoured the acquisition of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
25 We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us; for against the Lord our God have we sinned, we and our fathers, from our youth even until this day; and we have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord our God."
1 Then sent Hezekiah to all Israel and Judah, and he also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, to prepare the passoversacrifice unto the Lord the God of Israel.
2 And the king held a consultation, as also his princes, and all the assembly in Jerusalem, to prepare the passoversacrifice in the second month.
3 For they were not able to prepare it at that time; because the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently, nor had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem.
4 And the thing seemed right in the eyes of the king and in the eyes of all the assembly.
5 So they established a decree to cause a proclamation to be made throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even as far as Dan, that they should come to prepare the passoversacrifice unto thy Lord the God of Israel at Jerusalem; because for a long time past they had not prepared it as it was written,
6 So the runners went with the letters from the hand of the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the command of the king, saying, O children of Israel, return unto the Lord the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, and he will return to the remnant of you, that are escaped out of the power of the kings of Assyria.
7 And be net like your fathers, and like your brethren, who acted faithlessly against the Lord the God of their fathers, wherefore he gave them up to become an object of astonishment, as ye see.
8 Now do ye not harden your necks, like your fathers: hold out your hand unto the Lord, and come unto his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever, and serve the Lord your God, and so will he turn away from you the fierceness of his wrath.
9 For If ye return unto the Lord, your brethren and your children will find mercy in the presence of their captors, so that they may return to this land; for the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his countenance from you, if ye return unto him.
10 And as the runners were passing from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Menasseh and as far as Zebulun, they were laughing them to scorn, and mocking at them.
11 Nevertheless some men of Asher and Menasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem.
12 Also over Judah came the hand of God to give unto them one heart to do the command of the king and of the princes, by the word of the Lord.
13 And there was gathered together at Jerusalem a numerous people to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month, a very great assembly.
14 And they arose and removed the altars which were in Jerusalem, and all the vessels for burning incense did they take away, and they threw them into the brook Kidron.
15 And they slaughtered the passoversacrifice on the fourteenth day of the second month: and the priests and the Levites were ashamed, and sanctified themselves, and brought burntofferings unto the house of the Lord.
16 And they stood on their station after their prescribed manner, according to the law of Moses the man of God, the priest sprinkling the blood, which they received out of the hand of the Levites.
17 For there were many in the assembly that had not sanctified themselves: therefore the Levites had the charge of the slaughtering of the passover sacrifices for every one that was not clean, to sanctify the same unto the Lord.
18 For a large portion of the people, even many out of Ephraim, and Menasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, but ate the passover not as it is written. However Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, The Lord who is good will grant pardon for this.
19 To every one that hath directed his heart to seek God, the Lord the God of his fathers; though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary.
20 And the Lord hearkened to Hezekiah, and he healed the people.
21 And the children of Israel that were present at Jerusalem celebrated the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great joy; and the Levites and the priests praised the Lord day by day, with loud instruments before the Lord.
22 And Hezekiah spoke comfortingly unto all the Levites that had good intelligence of the Lord: and they ate the festiveofferings during seven days, offering peaceofferings, and making confession to the Lord the God of their fathers.
23 And the whole assembly took counsel to celebrate other seven days: and they celebrated these seven days with joy.
24 For Hezekiah king of Judah had provided for the assembly one thousand bullocks and seven thousand sheep; and the princes had provided for the assembly one thousand bullocks and ten thousand sheep: and the priests sanctified themselves in great numbers.
25 And thus rejoiced all the assembly of Judah, and the priests and the Levites, and all the assembly that was come out of Israel, and the strangers that were come out of the land of Israel, and those that dwelt in Judah.
26 And there was great joy in Jerusalem: for since the time of Solomon the son of David the king of Israel had the like not been in Jerusalem.
27 Then arose the priests the Levites and blessed the people: and their voice was listened to, and their prayer came to His holy dwellingplace, even unto heaven.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the man of unrighteousness his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and unto our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
6 Remember thy mercies, O Lord, and thy kindnesses; for they are from everlasting.
7 The sins of my youth and my transgressions do not remember: according to thy kindness bear thou me in remembrance, for the sake of thy goodness, O Lord.
13 He that concealeth his transgressions will not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them will obtain mercy.
31 Yet in thy abundant mercies hast thou not made an entire end of them, and thou hast not forsaken them; for a gracious and merciful God art thou.
6 Surely, only goodness and kindness shall follow me all the days of my life: and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord to the utmost length of days.