15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
9 but he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
6 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation; for thee I wait all the day long.
7 Be mindful of thy mercy, O LORD, and of thy steadfast love, for they have been from of old.
15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
1 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
2 Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love; according to thy abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
1 I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
13 He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.
5 It is well with the man who deals generously and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice.
17 Let thy work be manifest to thy servants, and thy glorious power to their children. [ (Psalms 90:18) Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish thou the work of our hands upon us, yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. ]
13 Go and learn what this means, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."
18 Who is a God like thee, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger for ever because he delights in steadfast love.
1 "If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the harlot with many lovers; and would you return to me? says the LORD.
2 Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with? By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers like an Arab in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your vile harlotry.
3 Therefore the showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come; yet you have a harlot's brow, you refuse to be ashamed.
4 Have you not just now called to me, `My father, thou art the friend of my youth--
5 will he be angry for ever, will he be indignant to the end?' Behold, you have spoken, but you have done all the evil that you could."
6 The LORD said to me in the days of King Josi'ah: "Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the harlot?
7 And I thought, `After she has done all this she will return to me'; but she did not return, and her false sister Judah saw it.
8 She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce; yet her false sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the harlot.
9 Because harlotry was so light to her, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree.
10 Yet for all this her false sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, says the LORD."
11 And the LORD said to me, "Faithless Israel has shown herself less guilty than false Judah.
12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, `Return, faithless Israel, says the LORD. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, says the LORD; I will not be angry for ever.
13 Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the LORD your God and scattered your favors among strangers under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, says the LORD.
14 Return, O faithless children, says the LORD; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
15 "`And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.
16 And when you have multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says the LORD, they shall no more say, "The ark of the covenant of the LORD." It shall not come to mind, or be remembered, or missed; it shall not be made again.
17 At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the LORD, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the LORD in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart.
18 In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers for a heritage.
19 "`I thought how I would set you among my sons, and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beauteous of all nations. And I thought you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from following me.
20 Surely, as a faithless wife leaves her husband, so have you been faithless to me, O house of Israel, says the LORD.'"
21 A voice on the bare heights is heard, the weeping and pleading of Israel's sons, because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten the LORD their God.
22 "Return, O faithless sons, I will heal your faithlessness." "Behold, we come to thee; for thou art the LORD our God.
23 Truly the hills are a delusion, the orgies on the mountains. Truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.
24 "But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
25 Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us; for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day; and we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God."
29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
6 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies; thou anointest my head with oil, my cup overflows. [ (Psalms 23:7) Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. ]
1 Hezeki'ah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to E'phraim and Manas'seh, that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, to keep the passover to the LORD the God of Israel.
2 For the king and his princes and all the assembly in Jerusalem had taken counsel to keep the passover in the second month--
3 for they could not keep it in its time because the priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient number, nor had the people assembled in Jerusalem--
4 and the plan seemed right to the king and all the assembly.
5 So they decreed to make a proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, that the people should come and keep the passover to the LORD the God of Israel, at Jerusalem; for they had not kept it in great numbers as prescribed.
6 So couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his princes, as the king had commanded, saying, "O people of Israel, return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria.
7 Do not be like your fathers and your brethren, who were faithless to the LORD God of their fathers, so that he made them a desolation, as you see.
8 Do not now be stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the LORD, and come to his sanctuary, which he has sanctified for ever, and serve the LORD your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you.
9 For if you return to the LORD, your brethren and your children will find compassion with their captors, and return to this land. For the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him."
10 So the couriers went from city to city through the country of E'phraim and Manas'seh, and as far as Zeb'ulun; but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them.
11 Only a few men of Asher, of Manas'seh, and of Zeb'ulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.
12 The hand of God was also upon Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the LORD.
13 And many people came together in Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month, a very great assembly.
14 They set to work and removed the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for burning incense they took away and threw into the Kidron valley.
15 And they killed the passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. And the priests and the Levites were put to shame, so that they sanctified themselves, and brought burnt offerings into the house of the LORD.
16 They took their accustomed posts according to the law of Moses the man of God; the priests sprinkled the blood which they received from the hand of the Levites.
17 For there were many in the assembly who had not sanctified themselves; therefore the Levites had to kill the passover lamb for every one who was not clean, to make it holy to the LORD.
18 For a multitude of the people, many of them from E'phraim, Manas'seh, Is'sachar, and Zeb'ulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the passover otherwise than as prescribed. For Hezeki'ah had prayed for them, saying, "The good LORD pardon every one
19 who sets his heart to seek God, the LORD the God of his fathers, even though not according to the sanctuary's rules of cleanness."
20 And the LORD heard Hezeki'ah, and healed the people.
21 And the people of Israel that were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness; and the Levites and the priests praised the LORD day by day, singing with all their might to the LORD.
22 And Hezeki'ah spoke encouragingly to all the Levites who showed good skill in the service of the LORD. So the people ate the food of the festival for seven days, sacrificing peace offerings and giving thanks to the LORD the God of their fathers.
23 Then the whole assembly agreed together to keep the feast for another seven days; so they kept it for another seven days with gladness.
24 For Hezeki'ah king of Judah gave the assembly a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep for offerings, and the princes gave the assembly a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep. And the priests sanctified themselves in great numbers.
25 The whole assembly of Judah, and the priests and the Levites, and the whole assembly that came out of Israel, and the sojourners who came out of the land of Israel, and the sojourners who dwelt in Judah, rejoiced.
26 So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem.
27 Then the priests and the Levites arose and blessed the people, and their voice was heard, and their prayer came to his holy habitation in heaven.
14 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you;
31 Nevertheless in thy great mercies thou didst not make an end of them or forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God.
1 A Song of Ascents.
2 Out of the depths I cry to thee, O LORD!
11 I have not hid thy saving help within my heart, I have spoken of thy faithfulness and thy salvation; I have not concealed thy steadfast love and thy faithfulness from the great congregation.
7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
18 Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you; therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.
21 Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.
22 "Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.
16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.