"Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil,

" Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, "Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.

"if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes [them] will have mercy.

Therefore the showers have been withheld, And there has been no latter rain. You have had a harlot's forehead; You refuse to be ashamed.

" Moreover you shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD: "Will they fall and not rise? Will one turn away and not return?

I listened and heard, [But] they do not speak aright. No man repented of his wickedness, Saying, 'What have I done?' Everyone turned to his own course, As the horse rushes into the battle.

"When I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked [man] shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand.

"Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.

" But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die.

"Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?" says the Lord GOD, "[and] not that he should turn from his ways and live?

"Again, when a wicked [man] turns away from the wickedness which he committed, and does what is lawful and right, he preserves himself alive.

"Yet the house of Israel says, 'The way of the Lord is not fair.' O house of Israel, is it not My ways which are fair, and your ways which are not fair?

"Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel?

"Say to them: '[As] I live,' says the Lord GOD, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?'

"Again, when I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' if he turns from his sin and does what is lawful and right,

"None of his sins which he has committed shall be remembered against him; he has done what is lawful and right; he shall surely live.

O Israel, return to the LORD your God, For you have stumbled because of your iniquity;

Take words with you, And return to the LORD. Say to Him, "Take away all iniquity; Receive [us] graciously, For we will offer the sacrifices of our lips.

Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.

"But go and learn what [this] means: 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."

"Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

'for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' And they began to be merry.

"Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,

"but declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and [then] to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance.

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites,

And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse [your] hands, [you] sinners; and purify [your] hearts, [you] double-minded.

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every intent of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually.

If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear.

O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, That you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?

Let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbor; And do not love a false oath. For all these [are things] that I hate,' Says the LORD."

"But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.

"For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.

"Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.

"For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,

"All these evil things come from within and defile a man."

Then the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness.

"Foolish ones! Did not He who made the outside make the inside also?

"You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God.

"Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.

Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

" I, [even] I, [am] He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.

I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, And like a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you."

And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,

"keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing [the guilty,] visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation."

'The LORD is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears [the guilty,] visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth [generation.']

"Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now."

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions.

O Israel, hope in the LORD; For with the LORD [there is] mercy, And with Him [is] abundant redemption.

"Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say: 'Return, backsliding Israel,' says the LORD; 'I will not cause My anger to fall on you. For I [am] merciful,' says the LORD; 'I will not remain angry forever.

Only acknowledge your iniquity, That you have transgressed against the LORD your God, And have scattered your charms To alien deities under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,' says the LORD.

"Therefore I say to you, her sins, [which are] many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, [the same] loves little."

And the gift [is] not like [that which came] through the one who sinned. For the judgment [which came] from one [offense resulted] in condemnation, but the free gift [which came] from many offenses [resulted] in justification.

Therefore, as through one man's offense [judgment] came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act [the free gift came] to all men, resulting in justification of life.

Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,

to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved.

which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,

This [is] a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.