The survivors fled into the city of Aphek, where the city walls fell on twenty-seven thousand of them. Benhadad also escaped into the city and took refuge in the back room of a house.

His officials went to him and said, "We have heard that the Israelite kings are merciful. Give us permission to go to the king of Israel with sackcloth around our waists and ropes around our necks, and maybe he will spare your life."

Four men who were suffering from a dreaded skin disease were outside the gates of Samaria, and they said to each other, "Why should we wait here until we die?

It's no use going into the city, because we would starve to death in there; but if we stay here, we'll die also. So let's go to the Syrian camp; the worst they can do is kill us, but maybe they will spare our lives."

In his suffering he became humble, turned to the LORD his God, and begged him for help.

God accepted Manasseh's prayer and answered it by letting him go back to Jerusalem and rule again. This convinced Manasseh that the LORD was God.

The king's prayer and God's answer to it, and an account of the sins he committed before he repented---the evil he did, the pagan places of worship and the symbols of the goddess Asherah that he made and the idols that he worshiped---are all recorded in The History of the Prophets.

Then I confessed my sins to you; I did not conceal my wrongdoings. I decided to confess them to you, and you forgave all my sins.

The danger of death was all around me; the horrors of the grave closed in on me; I was filled with fear and anxiety.

The LORD is merciful and good; our God is compassionate.

Be confident, my heart, because the LORD has been good to me.

Yes, the time is coming when sentries will call out on the hills of Ephraim, 'Let's go up to Zion, to the LORD our God.' "

I will bring them from the north and gather them from the ends of the earth. The blind and the lame will come with them, pregnant women and those about to give birth. They will come back a great nation.

The LORD says, "When that time comes, the people of both Israel and Judah will come weeping, looking for me, their God.

They will ask the way to Zion and then go in that direction. They will make an eternal covenant with me and never break it.

I do not have much longer to live; my hope in the LORD is gone.

I think of it constantly, and my spirit is depressed.

The LORD's unfailing love and mercy still continue,

So I am going to fence her in with thorn bushes and build a wall to block her way.

She will run after her lovers but will not catch them. She will look for them but will not find them. Then she will say, "I am going back to my first husband---I was better off then than I am now."

Return to the LORD your God, people of Israel. Your sin has made you stumble and fall.

Assyria can never save us, and war horses cannot protect us. We will never again say to our idols that they are our God. O LORD, you show mercy to those who have no one else to turn to."

I thought I had been banished from your presence and would never see your holy Temple again.

Perhaps God will change his mind; perhaps he will stop being angry, and we will not die!"

Jesus said to them, "When you pray, say this: 'Father: May your holy name be honored; may your Kingdom come.

You are our father. Our ancestors Abraham and Jacob do not acknowledge us, but you, LORD, are our father, the one who has always rescued us.

The LORD says, "Israel, I wanted to accept you as my child and give you a delightful land, the most beautiful land in all the world. I wanted you to call me father and never again turn away from me.

"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.

This, then, is how you should pray: 'Our Father in heaven: May your holy name be honored;

"If you forgive others the wrongs they have done to you, your Father in heaven will also forgive you.

As bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

But the tax collector stood at a distance and would not even raise his face to heaven, but beat on his breast and said, 'God, have pity on me, a sinner!'

"But your descendants will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors, who resisted me and rebelled against me,

and caused me to turn against them and send them into exile in the land of their enemies. At last, when your descendants are humbled and they have paid the penalty for their sin and rebellion,

listen to your people's prayers. If there in that land they repent and pray to you, confessing how sinful and wicked they have been, hear their prayers, O LORD.

If in that land they truly and sincerely repent and pray to you as they face toward this land which you gave to our ancestors, this city which you have chosen, and this Temple which I have built for you,

Each one will say in public, "I have sinned. I have not done right, but God spared me.

He kept me from going to the world of the dead, and I am still alive."

But if people are bound in chains, suffering for what they have done,

He makes them listen to his warning to turn away from evil.

Keep your promise, LORD, and forgive my sins, for they are many.

When I did not confess my sins, I was worn out from crying all day long.

Then I confessed my sins to you; I did not conceal my wrongdoings. I decided to confess them to you, and you forgave all my sins.

I recognize my faults; I am always conscious of my sins.

I have been evil from the day I was born; from the time I was conceived, I have been sinful.

Don't hesitate to discipline children. A good spanking won't kill them.

They confessed their sins, and he baptized them in the Jordan.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and there is no truth in us.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make a liar out of God, and his word is not in us.

'Father,' the son said, 'I have sinned against God and against you. I am no longer fit to be called your son.'

The angel ordered the stump to be left in the ground. This means that you will become king again when you acknowledge that God rules all the world.