then the LORD your God will have mercy on you. He will bring you back from the nations where he has scattered you, and he will make you prosperous again.

The LORD will rescue his people when he sees that their strength is gone. He will have mercy on those who serve him, when he sees how helpless they are.

Now for a short time, O LORD our God, you have been gracious to us and have let some of us escape from slavery and live in safety in this holy place. You have let us escape from slavery and have given us new life.

We were slaves, but you did not leave us in slavery. You made the emperors of Persia favor us and permit us to go on living and to rebuild your Temple, which was in ruins, and to find safety here in Judah and Jerusalem.

How much longer will your anger last? Have pity, O LORD, on your servants!

Fill us each morning with your constant love, so that we may sing and be glad all our life.

LORD, look upon us from heaven, where you live in your holiness and glory. Where is your great concern for us? Where is your power? Where are your love and compassion? Do not ignore us.

Why do you let us stray from your ways? Why do you make us so stubborn that we turn away from you? Come back, for the sake of those who serve you, for the sake of the people who have always been yours.

"Israel, you are my dearest child, the one I love best. Whenever I mention your name, I think of you with love. My heart goes out to you; I will be merciful.

He may bring us sorrow, but his love for us is sure and strong.

The LORD says, "I will bring my people back to me. I will love them with all my heart; no longer am I angry with them.

The LORD your God will give you and your descendants obedient hearts, so that you will love him with all your heart, and you will continue to live in that land.

He will save his people Israel from all their sins.

I will give them a new heart and a new mind. I will take away their stubborn heart of stone and will give them an obedient heart.

Then they will keep my laws and faithfully obey all my commands. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

I will sprinkle clean water on you and make you clean from all your idols and everything else that has defiled you.

I will put my spirit in you and will see to it that you follow my laws and keep all the commands I have given you.

Sin must not be your master; for you do not live under law but under God's grace.

But thanks be to God! For though at one time you were slaves to sin, you have obeyed with all your heart the truths found in the teaching you received.

(I use everyday language because of the weakness of your natural selves.) At one time you surrendered yourselves entirely as slaves to impurity and wickedness for wicked purposes. In the same way you must now surrender yourselves entirely as slaves of righteousness for holy purposes.

What did you gain from doing the things that you are now ashamed of ? The result of those things is death!

But I see a different law at work in my body---a law that fights against the law which my mind approves of. It makes me a prisoner to the law of sin which is at work in my body.

Thanks be to God, who does this through our Lord Jesus Christ! This, then, is my condition: on my own I can serve God's law only with my mind, while my human nature serves the law of sin.

For the law of the Spirit, which brings us life in union with Christ Jesus, has set me free from the law of sin and death.

What the Law could not do, because human nature was weak, God did. He condemned sin in human nature by sending his own Son, who came with a nature like our sinful nature, to do away with sin.

For if you live according to your human nature, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death your sinful actions, you will live.

He gave himself for us, to rescue us from all wickedness and to make us a pure people who belong to him alone and are eager to do good.

Don't think that there is no truth in the scripture that says, "The spirit that God placed in us is filled with fierce desires."

But the grace that God gives is even stronger. As the scripture says, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

Whoever continues to sin belongs to the Devil, because the Devil has sinned from the very beginning. The Son of God appeared for this very reason, to destroy what the Devil had done.

As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our sins from us.

My bitterness will turn into peace. You save my life from all danger; You forgive all my sins.

When that time comes, no sin will be found in Israel and no wickedness in Judah, because I will forgive those people whose lives I have spared. I, the LORD, have spoken."

"Seven times seventy years is the length of time God has set for freeing your people and your holy city from sin and evil. Sin will be forgiven and eternal justice established, so that the vision and the prophecy will come true, and the holy Temple will be rededicated.