8 Therefore produce fruit worthy of repentance!
32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."
13 He who conceals his sins doesn’t prosper,
but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.
32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies," says the Lord GOD. "Therefore turn yourselves, and live!
3 I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way.
17 From that time, Jesus began to preach, and to say, "Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."
38 Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptised, 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.
7 I tell you that even so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.
30 The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent,
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.
19 As many as I love, I reprove and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
23 Turn at my reproof.
Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you.
I will make known my words to you.
19 "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,
14 if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
13 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."
9 The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but he is patient with us, not wishing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
1 Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the LORD’s house at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover to the LORD, the God of Israel. 2 For the king had taken counsel with his princes and all the assembly in Jerusalem to keep the Passover in the second month. 3 For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient number, and the people had not gathered themselves together to Jerusalem. 4 The thing was right in the eyes of the king and of all the assembly. 5 So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover to the LORD, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem, for they had not kept it in great numbers in the way it is written.
6 So the couriers went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, according to the commandment of the king, saying, "You children of Israel, turn again to the LORD, 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. 7 Don’t be like your fathers and like your brothers, who trespassed against the LORD, the God of their fathers, so that he gave them up to desolation, as you see. 8 Now don’t be stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever, and serve the LORD your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you. 9 For if you turn again to the LORD, your brothers and your children will find compassion with those who led them captive, and will come again into this land, because 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 passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even to Zebulun, but people ridiculed them and mocked them. 11 Nevertheless some men of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. 12 Also the hand of God came on Judah to give them one heart, to do the commandment of the king and of the princes by the LORD’s word.
13 Many people assembled at Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month, a very great assembly. 14 They arose and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and they took away all the altars for incense and threw them into the brook Kidron. 15 Then they killed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and the Levites were ashamed, and sanctified themselves, and brought burnt offerings into the LORD’s house. 16 They stood in their place after their order, according to the law of Moses the man of God. The priests sprinkled the blood which they received of the hand of the Levites. 17 For there were many in the assembly who had not sanctified themselves; therefore the Levites were in charge of killing the Passovers for everyone who was not clean, to sanctify them to the LORD. 18 For a multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover other than the way it is written. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, "May the good the LORD pardon everyone 19 who sets his heart to seek God, the LORD, the God of his fathers, even if they aren’t clean according to the purification of the sanctuary."
20 The LORD listened to Hezekiah, and healed the people. 21 The children of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness. The Levites and the priests praised the LORD day by day, singing with loud instruments to the LORD. 22 Hezekiah spoke encouragingly to all the Levites who had good understanding in the service of the LORD. So they ate throughout the feast for the seven days, offering sacrifices of peace offerings and making confession to the LORD, the God of their fathers.
23 The whole assembly took counsel to keep another seven days, and they kept another seven days with gladness. 24 For Hezekiah king of Judah gave to the assembly for offerings one thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep; and the princes gave to the assembly a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep; and a great number of priests sanctified themselves. 25 All the assembly of Judah, with the priests and the Levites, and all the assembly who came out of Israel, and the foreigners who came out of the land of Israel and who lived 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 was nothing like this in Jerusalem. 27 Then the Levitical priests arose and blessed the people. Their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy habitation, even to heaven.
15 and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News."
1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the LORD’s word came to the prophet Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying, 2 "The LORD was very displeased with your fathers. 3 Therefore tell them, the LORD of Armies says: ‘Return to me,’ says the LORD of Armies, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the LORD of Armies. 4 Don’t you be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: The LORD of Armies says, ‘Return now from your evil ways and from your evil doings;’ but they didn’t hear nor listen to me, says the LORD. 5 Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? 6 But my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, didn’t they overtake your fathers?
"Then they repented and said, ‘Just as the LORD of Armies determined to do to us, according to our ways and according to our practices, so he has dealt with us.’"
7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the LORD’s word came to the prophet Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying, 8 "I had a vision in the night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse, and he stood amongst the myrtle trees that were in a ravine; and behind him there were red, brown, and white horses. 9 Then I asked, ‘My lord, what are these?’"
The angel who talked with me said to me, "I will show you what these are."
10 The man who stood amongst the myrtle trees answered, "They are the ones the LORD has sent to go back and forth through the earth."
11 They reported to the LORD’s angel who stood amongst the myrtle trees, and said, "We have walked back and forth through the earth, and behold, all the earth is at rest and in peace."
12 Then the LORD’s angel replied, "O LORD of Armies, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which you have had indignation these seventy years?"
13 The LORD answered the angel who talked with me with kind and comforting words. 14 So the angel who talked with me said to me, "Proclaim, saying, ‘The LORD of Armies says: "I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. 15 I am very angry with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, but they added to the calamity." 16 Therefore the LORD says: "I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it," says the LORD of Armies, "and a line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem."’
17 "Proclaim further, saying, ‘The LORD of Armies says: "My cities will again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion, and will again choose Jerusalem."’"
18 I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, four horns. 19 I asked the angel who talked with me, "What are these?"
He answered me, "These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem."
20 The LORD showed me four craftsmen. 21 Then I asked, "What are these coming to do?"
He said, "These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man lifted up his head; but these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations that lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it."
10 Even so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner repenting."
13 Tear your heart and not your garments,
and turn to the LORD, your God;
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness,
and relents from sending calamity.