Nevertheless God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus,

and not only by his coming, but also by the consolation with which he was comforted in you, when he told us of your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more.

For godly sorrow produces repentance [leading] to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.

Sorrow [is] better than laughter, For by a sad countenance the heart is made better.

" I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself: 'You have chastised me, and I was chastised, Like an untrained bull; Restore me, and I will return, For You [are] the LORD my God.

[Is] Ephraim My dear son? [Is he] a pleasant child? For though I spoke against him, I earnestly remember him still; Therefore My heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, says the LORD.

" And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for [his] only [son,] and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.

"I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

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

"But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

"and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants." '

"And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.'

'And bring the fatted calf here and kill [it,] and let us eat and be merry;

"testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

For godly sorrow produces repentance [leading] to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.

For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, [what] clearing [of yourselves, what] indignation, [what] fear, [what] vehement desire, [what] zeal, [what] vindication! In all [things] you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you.

To the one [we are] the aroma of death [leading] to death, and to the other the aroma of life [leading] to life. And who [is] sufficient for these things?

For even if I should boast somewhat more about our authority, which the Lord gave us for edification and not for your destruction, I shall not be ashamed --

"For [his] letters," they say, "[are] weighty and powerful, but [his] bodily presence [is] weak, and [his] speech contemptible."

For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.

Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the authority which the Lord has given me for edification and not for destruction.

And He said, "Go, and tell this people: 'Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.'

Then I said, "Lord, how long?" And He answered: "Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, The houses are without a man, The land is utterly desolate,