Then the king hurriedly called Moses and Aaron and said, "I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you.

Balaam replied, "I have sinned. I did not know that you were standing in the road to oppose me; but now if you think it is wrong for me to go on, I will return home."

"Yes, I have sinned," Saul replied. "I disobeyed the LORD's command and your instructions. I was afraid of my men and did what they wanted.

"I have sinned," Saul replied. "But at least show me respect in front of the leaders of my people and all of Israel. Go back with me so that I can worship the LORD your God."

Saul answered, "I have done wrong. Come back, David, my son! I will never harm you again, because you have spared my life tonight. I have been a fool! I have done a terrible thing!"

"I have sinned by betraying an innocent man to death!" he said. "What do we care about that?" they answered. "That is your business!"

The king and the leaders admitted that they had sinned, and they said, "What the LORD is doing is just."

The LORD has revealed himself by his righteous judgments, and the wicked are trapped by their own deeds.

But the LORD, the righteous one, has freed me from slavery."

The LORD is righteous in all he does, merciful in all his acts.

"But the LORD is just, for I have disobeyed him. Listen to me, people everywhere; look at me in my pain. My young men and women have been taken away captive.

You, O LORD our God, were prepared to punish us, and you did, because you always do what is right, and we did not listen to you.

But you have a hard and stubborn heart, and so you are making your own punishment even greater on the Day when God's anger and righteous judgments will be revealed.

Now we know that everything in the Law applies to those who live under the Law, in order to stop all human excuses and bring the whole world under God's judgment.