What Does the Bible Say About Repentance?

2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV / 51 helpful votes

If my people who are called by my name 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.

Luke 13:3 ESV / 34 helpful votes

No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

Acts 17:30 ESV / 30 helpful votes

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

Acts 3:19 ESV / 29 helpful votes

Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out,

1 John 1:9 ESV / 23 helpful votes

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Acts 2:38 ESV / 23 helpful votes

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Revelation 2:5 ESV / 22 helpful votes

Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

2 Peter 3:9 ESV / 21 helpful votes

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Ezekiel 18:21-23 ESV / 17 helpful votes

“But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?

James 4:8-10 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Mark 1:15 ESV / 13 helpful votes

And saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Romans 6:23 ESV / 12 helpful votes

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Proverbs 28:13 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

2 Corinthians 7:9-11 ESV / 10 helpful votes

As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.

Matthew 3:2 ESV / 10 helpful votes

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Matthew 4:17 ESV / 9 helpful votes

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Joel 2:13 ESV / 9 helpful votes

And rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.

Jeremiah 18:8 ESV / 9 helpful votes

And if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it.

Revelation 3:19 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.

Luke 13:5 ESV / 8 helpful votes

No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Matthew 7:23 ESV / 8 helpful votes

And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Jeremiah 26:3 ESV / 8 helpful votes

It may be they will listen, and every one turn from his evil way, that I may relent of the disaster that I intend to do to them because of their evil deeds.

Revelation 3:3 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.

Romans 6:4 ESV / 7 helpful votes

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

John 3:16 ESV / 7 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Luke 18:10-14 ESV / 7 helpful votes

“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Psalm 119:176 ESV / 7 helpful votes

I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant, for I do not forget your commandments.

Acts 20:21 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Acts 8:22 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.

Haggai 1:7 ESV / 6 helpful votes

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.

Jonah 3:10 ESV / 6 helpful votes

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Jonah 3:9 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

Joel 2:12 ESV / 6 helpful votes

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;

Ezekiel 33:14-16 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Again, though I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ yet if he turns from his sin and does what is just and right, if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has taken by robbery, and walks in the statutes of life, not doing injustice, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he shall surely live.

Jeremiah 7:5 ESV / 6 helpful votes

“For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another,

Isaiah 44:22 ESV / 6 helpful votes

I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.

Psalm 38:18 ESV / 6 helpful votes

I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin.

1 Peter 2:24 ESV / 5 helpful votes

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

2 Timothy 2:25 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,

Mark 1:4 ESV / 5 helpful votes

John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Matthew 3:1-17 ESV / 5 helpful votes

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’” Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, ...

Zechariah 3:1-10 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by. ...

Jonah 3:8 ESV / 5 helpful votes

But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.

Ezekiel 36:31 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations.

Isaiah 55:6 ESV / 5 helpful votes

“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;

Proverbs 9:6 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”

Psalm 69:10 ESV / 5 helpful votes

When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach.

Psalm 51:7-17 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. ...

Psalm 51:1-4 ESV / 5 helpful votes

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

Psalm 40:12 ESV / 5 helpful votes

For evils have encompassed me beyond number; my iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head; my heart fails me.

Revelation 3:2 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.

1 Peter 2:25 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Hebrews 12:17 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

Titus 3:5 ESV / 4 helpful votes

He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

Romans 11:23 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.

Romans 2:4 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

Acts 26:20 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.

Acts 5:31 ESV / 4 helpful votes

God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

Acts 2:40 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”

John 5:24 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Luke 22:62 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And he went out and wept bitterly.

Luke 13:1-5 ESV / 4 helpful votes

There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Luke 10:13 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

Luke 3:3 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Mark 6:12 ESV / 4 helpful votes

So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent.

Matthew 3:8 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

Ezekiel 33:19 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he shall live by this.

Ezekiel 20:43 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And there you shall remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, and you shall loathe yourselves for all the evils that you have committed.

Ezekiel 18:27 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life.

Isaiah 5:1-30 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. ...

Psalm 130:1-3 ESV / 4 helpful votes

A Song of Ascents. Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?

Psalm 41:4 ESV / 4 helpful votes

As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you!”

Job 13:23 ESV / 4 helpful votes

How many are my iniquities and my sins? Make me know my transgression and my sin.

Exodus 32:14 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

Ephesians 2:8 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

1 Corinthians 15:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

Romans 14:11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”

Romans 5:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 4:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,

Acts 2:1-47 ESV / 3 helpful votes

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. ...

Acts 1:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

(Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out.

Acts 1:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.

Luke 15:17-21 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

Luke 15:17-20 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

Luke 15:1-10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ...

Luke 7:37-48 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.” “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. ...

Luke 6:21 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.

Luke 5:32 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Mark 14:72 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And immediately the rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down and wept.

Mark 2:17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Matthew 27:3-5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself.

Matthew 26:75 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.

Matthew 21:29 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went.

Matthew 9:13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Matthew 5:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Matthew 3:7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Matthew 3:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

Malachi 3:7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’

Zechariah 12:10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.

Zechariah 1:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Therefore say to them, Thus declares the Lord of hosts: Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.

Haggai 1:1-15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. ...

Micah 7:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication.

Jonah 3:5-9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

Jonah 2:2-9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’ The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. ...

Amos 7:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The Lord relented concerning this: “This also shall not be,” said the Lord God.

Amos 7:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The Lord relented concerning this: “It shall not be,” said the Lord.

Amos 5:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

Amos 5:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Seek the Lord and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel,

Amos 5:4-6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: “Seek me and live; but do not seek Bethel, and do not enter into Gilgal or cross over to Beersheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into exile, and Bethel shall come to nothing.” Seek the Lord and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel,

Amos 4:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”

Joel 1:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.

Hosea 14:8 ESV / 3 helpful votes

O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen cypress; from me comes your fruit.

Hosea 14:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.”

Hosea 14:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Take with you words and return to the Lord; say to him, “Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips.

Hosea 14:1-3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take with you words and return to the Lord; say to him, “Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips. Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.”

Hosea 14:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.

Hosea 12:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.”

Hosea 10:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

Hosea 6:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.

Hosea 5:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me.

Hosea 3:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.

Hosea 2:7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them. Then she shall say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.’

Daniel 10:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words.

Daniel 9:5-7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

We have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you.

Daniel 4:27 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.”

Ezekiel 37:23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

Ezekiel 33:10-12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, Thus have you said: ‘Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live?’ Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? “And you, son of man, say to your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him when he transgresses, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall by it when he turns from his wickedness, and the righteous shall not be able to live by his righteousness when he sins.

Ezekiel 18:30-32 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.”

Ezekiel 18:28 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die.

Ezekiel 16:61-63 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you take your sisters, both your elder and your younger, and I give them to you as daughters, but not on account of the covenant with you. I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord God.”

Ezekiel 14:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations.

Ezekiel 12:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

As for you, son of man, prepare for yourself an exile's baggage, and go into exile by day in their sight. You shall go like an exile from your place to another place in their sight. Perhaps they will understand, though they are a rebellious house.

Ezekiel 11:18-20 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And when they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations. And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

Ezekiel 7:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And if any survivors escape, they will be on the mountains, like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, each one over his iniquity.

Lamentations 3:41 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:

Lamentations 3:40 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord!

Jeremiah 50:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

They shall ask the way to Zion, with faces turned toward it, saying, ‘Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.’

Jeremiah 50:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“In those days and in that time, declares the Lord, the people of Israel and the people of Judah shall come together, weeping as they come, and they shall seek the Lord their God.

Jeremiah 42:10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I relent of the disaster that I did to you.

Jeremiah 36:7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

It may be that their plea for mercy will come before the Lord, and that every one will turn from his evil way, for great is the anger and wrath that the Lord has pronounced against this people.”

Jeremiah 36:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the disaster that I intend to do to them, so that every one may turn from his evil way, and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

Jeremiah 31:19 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For after I had turned away, I relented, and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh; I was ashamed, and I was confounded, because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’

Jeremiah 31:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I have heard Ephraim grieving, ‘You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined, like an untrained calf; bring me back that I may be restored, for you are the Lord my God.

Jeremiah 26:19 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Did he not fear the Lord and entreat the favor of the Lord, and did not the Lord relent of the disaster that he had pronounced against them? But we are about to bring great disaster upon ourselves.”

Jeremiah 26:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and said to all the people of Judah: ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “‘Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.’

Jeremiah 26:13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Now therefore mend your ways and your deeds, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will relent of the disaster that he has pronounced against you.

Jeremiah 25:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Saying, ‘Turn now, every one of you, from his evil way and evil deeds, and dwell upon the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers from of old and forever.

Jeremiah 24:7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

Jeremiah 18:11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.’

Jeremiah 18:10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it.

Jeremiah 15:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

You have rejected me, declares the Lord; you keep going backward, so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you— I am weary of relenting.

Jeremiah 14:20 ESV / 3 helpful votes

We acknowledge our wickedness, O Lord, and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against you.

Jeremiah 14:7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O Lord, for your name's sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.

Jeremiah 13:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Give glory to the Lord your God before he brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the twilight mountains, and while you look for light he turns it into gloom and makes it deep darkness.

Jeremiah 13:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Hear and give ear; be not proud, for the Lord has spoken.

Jeremiah 8:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Why do we sit still? Gather together; let us go into the fortified cities and perish there, for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish and has given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord.

Jeremiah 7:7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

Jeremiah 7:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.

Jeremiah 6:8 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Be warned, O Jerusalem, lest I turn from you in disgust, lest I make you a desolation, an uninhabited land.”

Jeremiah 4:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

Jeremiah 4:1-4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“If you return, O Israel, declares the Lord, to me you should return. If you remove your detestable things from my presence, and do not waver, and if you swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.” For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: “Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.”

Jeremiah 3:25 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us. For we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”

Jeremiah 3:22 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness.” “Behold, we come to you, for you are the Lord our God.

Jeremiah 3:21 ESV / 3 helpful votes

A voice on the bare heights is heard, the weeping and pleading of Israel's sons because they have perverted their way; they have forgotten the Lord their God.

Jeremiah 3:19 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“‘I said, How I would set you among my sons, and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beautiful of all nations. And I thought you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from following me.

Jeremiah 3:12-14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, “‘Return, faithless Israel, declares the Lord. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the Lord; I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the Lord your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the Lord. Return, O faithless children, declares the Lord; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.

Jeremiah 3:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Have you not just now called to me, ‘My father, you are the friend of my youth—

Isaiah 64:5-7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved? We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.

Isaiah 61:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;

Isaiah 61:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

Isaiah 59:20 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord.

Isaiah 59:12-15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.

Isaiah 57:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

Isaiah 46:8 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors,

Isaiah 38:17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back.

Isaiah 38:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

What shall I say? For he has spoken to me, and he himself has done it. I walk slowly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.

Isaiah 31:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Turn to him from whom people have deeply revolted, O children of Israel.

Isaiah 22:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

In that day the Lord God of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and wearing sackcloth;

Isaiah 10:21 ESV / 3 helpful votes

A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.

Isaiah 6:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Proverbs 1:23-33 ESV / 3 helpful votes

If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you, when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. ...

Proverbs 1:23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.

Proverbs 1:22 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?

Psalm 147:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

Psalm 135:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For the Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants.

Psalm 119:59 ESV / 3 helpful votes

When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies;

Psalm 110:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

Psalm 106:45 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For their sake he remembered his covenant, and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love.

Psalm 106:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness.

Psalm 95:8 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,

Psalm 95:7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice,

Psalm 73:22 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you.

Psalm 73:21 ESV / 3 helpful votes

When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart,

Psalm 69:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

O God, you know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.

Psalm 51:17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Psalm 38:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

Psalm 38:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin.

Psalm 34:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

Psalm 34:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

Psalm 32:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

Bible Verses about Repentance