Mercy in the Bible

David finds Saul vulnerable in a cave at En Gedi but refuses to kill the Lord's anointed, cutting only a corner of his robe. David confronts Saul from a distance, and Saul weeps, acknowledging David's righteousness.

David again spares Saul's life, this time taking his spear and water jug while he sleeps in camp. From a hilltop, David calls out to Saul and Abner, demonstrating his innocence. Saul admits his wrong and blesses David.

Paul charges Timothy to confront false teachers in Ephesus who promote myths and genealogies rather than God's work of faith. He testifies to God's abundant grace in his own life—formerly a blasphemer and persecutor—as a demonstration that Christ Jesus came to save sinners, of whom Paul says he is the worst.

Hezekiah invites all Israel and Judah to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem — even sending messengers to the northern tribes. Though many mock the invitation, some humble themselves and come. God graciously accepts worshipers who are not ceremonially clean because their hearts are right.

Manasseh reigns as the most wicked king of Judah, filling Jerusalem with idolatry and bloodshed. But when captured by Assyria and humbled, he repents and God restores him. Manasseh removes the foreign gods and restores proper worship. His son Amon reverses the reforms and is assassinated.

Elisha makes an axe head float, reveals Aramean battle plans to Israel's king, and is surrounded by an enemy army. He prays for his servant's eyes to be opened, revealing mountains full of angelic horses and chariots of fire. Elisha leads the blinded Arameans into Samaria and feeds them.

David seeks to show kindness to anyone remaining from Saul's house for Jonathan's sake. He finds Mephibosheth, Jonathan's crippled son, and restores all of Saul's land to him, giving him a permanent place at the king's table.

Joab rebukes David's excessive mourning, warning it demoralizes his loyal troops. David returns to Jerusalem, pardons Shimei, clarifies Mephibosheth's loyalty, and honors old Barzillai. Tribal jealousy erupts between Judah and Israel.

Three visions of judgment — locusts, fire, and a plumb line. God relents from the first two but not the third: Israel is crooked by the plumb line of justice. The priest Amaziah expels Amos, who responds: I was no prophet — just a shepherd and fig farmer. But God called me.

Daniel prays one of Scripture's greatest confessional prayers. Gabriel reveals the prophecy of Seventy Weeks — 490 years until the Anointed One comes and is cut off. This is the most precise messianic timeline in the Bible, pointing directly to Christ's coming.

Moses clarifies that Israel is not receiving the land because of their righteousness — they are a stubborn people. He recounts the golden calf incident in detail, reminding them how close God came to destroying the nation and how Moses interceded for forty days and nights to avert their destruction.

Moses establishes three cities of refuge in the Promised Land for those who accidentally kill someone. Boundaries must not be moved. Two or three witnesses are required for any criminal charge, and false witnesses receive the punishment they intended for the accused — purging evil from Israel.

Laws define who may enter the assembly of the Lord and exclude certain groups temporarily or permanently. Camp hygiene laws maintain purity in military camps where God walks. Escaped slaves must not be returned to their masters. Interest may not be charged to fellow Israelites, and vows must be fulfilled.

Laws address divorce (a certificate is required and remarriage after a second marriage is prohibited), pledges (a millstone cannot be taken), kidnapping (punishable by death), and fair treatment of hired workers (pay them promptly). Gleaning laws ensure food for foreigners, orphans, and widows.

Laws limit flogging to forty stripes, protect working oxen from being muzzled, and establish levirate marriage — a brother's duty to marry his deceased brother's widow to continue his name. Honest weights and measures are required. The chapter concludes with a command to remember and eventually destroy Amalek.

God continues the civil laws covering theft, property damage, and restitution. Laws protect the vulnerable — widows, orphans, and foreigners. God warns that He will personally hear the cry of the oppressed. Economic laws govern lending, pledges, and firstfruits offerings.

God threatens to withdraw His personal presence from Israel because of their stubbornness. Moses pleads with God and sets up a tent of meeting outside the camp where God speaks with him face to face. Moses asks to see God's glory, and God agrees to let His goodness pass by while shielding Moses in the cleft of a rock.

God tells Moses to cut two new stone tablets and come back up Sinai. God passes before Moses, proclaiming His name: The LORD, compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. God renews the covenant with Israel and gives further laws. When Moses descends, his face shines so brightly he must wear a veil.

God demolishes the proverb about fathers eating sour grapes and children's teeth being set on edge. Each person is responsible for their own sin — the righteous will live, the wicked will die. God takes no pleasure in death and calls everyone to repent and live.

After Jerusalem falls, Ezekiel is reinstated as watchman. God declares: I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked but rather that they turn and live. A survivor arrives confirming Jerusalem's destruction, and Ezekiel's mouth is opened to speak freely again.

Three visitors appear to Abraham at Mamre and reaffirm that Sarah will have a son within a year. Sarah laughs in disbelief. Abraham then intercedes with God for the city of Sodom, negotiating from fifty righteous people down to ten.

Two angels visit Sodom and are welcomed by Lot. The men of Sodom surround the house demanding the visitors, but the angels strike them blind. God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone; Lot's wife looks back and becomes a pillar of salt.

Joseph plants his silver cup in Benjamin's sack and sends his steward to arrest them. When the cup is found, Judah offers himself as a slave in Benjamin's place, showing how much the brothers have changed. Judah's passionate plea reveals deep concern for their father Jacob.

The author warns against drifting from the great salvation announced by the Lord. Jesus was made lower than the angels for a time so that by dying He might destroy the power of death and free those held in slavery by the fear of death. He became like us to be a merciful and faithful high priest.

A Sabbath rest remains for the people of God. The author urges diligence to enter that rest, not falling through the same pattern of unbelief as Israel. The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. Since we have a great high priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses, we can approach the throne of grace with confidence.

God tells Hosea to buy back his adulterous wife, demonstrating His love for Israel despite her unfaithfulness. Hosea pays the price and asks Gomer to wait for him faithfully — a picture of redemption at great personal cost.

Israel's superficial repentance: Come, let us return to the Lord — but their love is like morning mist that quickly vanishes. God declares: I desire mercy, not sacrifice — a verse Jesus quotes twice. True knowledge of God matters more than religious ritual.

God's tender heartbreak as a parent: When Israel was a child, I loved him — I taught Ephraim to walk, I carried them. But they turned away. God's heart recoils within Him; His compassion grows warm and tender. He will not execute His fierce anger because He is God, not man.

Continues the Moab oracle, urging Moab to seek shelter under Judah's king. The chapter prophesies Moab's eventual humbling within three years and expresses Isaiah's deep sorrow over their coming destruction.

Woe to those who trust Egypt rather than God. Judah's alliance with Egypt is futile — like trusting a cracked wall. Yet God longs to be gracious, waiting to show compassion, and promises to guide His people with a word behind them.

James condemns favoritism in the church—showing partiality based on wealth violates the royal law of love. He argues forcefully that faith without works is dead. Abraham and Rahab demonstrated faith through action. Just as the body without the spirit is dead, faith without deeds is dead.

Tola and Jair serve as minor judges for a combined 45 years. Israel again turns to foreign gods, and God allows the Ammonites and Philistines to oppress them. When Israel cries out and puts away their idols, God is moved by their misery.

Despite Israel's spiritual adultery — unfaithfulness worse than a divorced wife — God pleads for them to return. He contrasts faithless Israel with treacherous Judah, and promises that genuine repentance will bring shepherds after His own heart.

Jesus forgives the woman caught in adultery, telling her accusers that whoever is without sin should cast the first stone. He declares Himself the light of the world and teaches about spiritual freedom: you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. He makes the explosive claim: before Abraham was, I AM.

The locust army becomes an image of the Day of the Lord — darkness and gloom, a powerful people like the dawn. Yet God calls: rend your heart, not your garments. He promises restoration, rains, and His Spirit poured out on ALL flesh — sons, daughters, old, young, servants. Peter quotes this at Pentecost.

Jonah preaches a one-line sermon — Nineveh will be overthrown in forty days — and the entire city repents, from king to cattle. God relents from the planned destruction. The greatest mass repentance in Scripture comes from the most unlikely audience.

Jonah is furious that God showed mercy — he wanted Nineveh destroyed. God teaches him through a plant that grows and dies: Jonah pities the plant but not 120,000 people. Should I not have concern for this great city? The book ends with God's question unanswered.

Joshua sends two spies to Jericho who are hidden by Rahab the prostitute. She confesses faith in Israel's God and secures a promise of safety for her family. The spies return with an encouraging report.

God commands Joshua to designate six cities of refuge — three on each side of the Jordan — where those who accidentally kill someone can flee for protection from the avenger of blood.

The heart of Lamentations: from the depths of despair, the poet declares that God's mercies are new every morning, great is His faithfulness. The Lord is good to those who wait for Him. This chapter moves from deepest darkness to the Bible's most profound expression of hope amid suffering.

Further provisions for the sin offering address specific situations: failing to testify, touching something unclean, or making a rash oath. The guilt offering (trespass offering) is introduced for sins involving sacred things. A sliding scale allows poorer people to bring lesser offerings.

God prescribes the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), the most sacred day in the Israelite calendar. The high priest enters the Most Holy Place once a year with blood to make atonement for the nation. Two goats are used — one sacrificed and one sent into the wilderness as the scapegoat bearing the people's sins.

Jesus appoints the twelve apostles and delivers the Sermon on the Plain, including blessings and woes. He teaches radical love for enemies, the Golden Rule—do to others as you would have them do to you—and warns against judging others while ignoring your own flaws.

Jesus heals the centurion's servant, commending his extraordinary faith. He raises the widow's son at Nain from the dead. John the Baptist sends disciples to ask if Jesus is the one, and Jesus commends John. A sinful woman anoints Jesus' feet, and He declares her sins forgiven because she loved much.

Jesus sends out seventy-two disciples and pronounces woes on unrepentant cities. He rejoices that the Father reveals truth to the humble. He tells the parable of the Good Samaritan, defining neighbor love in radical terms. He visits Martha and Mary, teaching that sitting at His feet is the one thing needed.

Jesus calls for repentance, telling the parable of the barren fig tree given one more chance. He heals a crippled woman on the Sabbath and teaches about the narrow door. He laments over Jerusalem, longing to gather her children under His wings.

The chapter of the lost: Jesus tells three parables—the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son—to reveal the Father's heart that rejoices extravagantly when even one lost person returns. The prodigal son is one of the most beloved stories in all Scripture.

Jesus heals a paralytic, demonstrating His authority to forgive sins. He calls Matthew the tax collector, dines with sinners, and performs further healings including raising a girl from death. He expresses compassion for crowds who are like sheep without a shepherd.

Conflict intensifies as the Pharisees challenge Jesus about Sabbath observance and attribute His miracles to Satan. Jesus declares that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand and warns about the unforgivable sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit.

Herod executes John the Baptist. Jesus feeds five thousand with five loaves and two fish, then walks on water. Peter steps out in faith but begins to sink when he takes his eyes off Jesus, who immediately reaches out to save him.

Jesus confronts the Pharisees about elevating human tradition above God's commands. He teaches that what defiles a person comes from the heart, not from external ritual. He heals the Canaanite woman's daughter and feeds four thousand.

Jesus teaches about humility, using a child as an example of greatness in the kingdom. He addresses sin within the community, outlines a process for reconciliation, and tells the parable of the unforgiving servant. He declares that where two or three gather in His name, He is there.

God takes Israel to court, with the mountains as witnesses. What does the Lord require? Not thousands of rams or rivers of oil, but to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God — one of the most famous ethical summaries in all of Scripture.

Micah laments: the faithful have vanished, everyone lies in wait for blood, trust no one — not even family. Yet the book ends with astonishing hope: God will again have compassion, tread iniquities underfoot, hurl sins into the sea, and show faithfulness to Abraham — who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity?

Jesus heals a paralytic lowered through a roof, demonstrating His authority to forgive sins. He calls Levi the tax collector, defends eating with sinners, and asserts His lordship over the Sabbath. He teaches that new wine requires new wineskins.

Jesus confronts the Pharisees about their tradition-based religion, declaring all foods clean and teaching that defilement comes from within the heart. He heals a Syrophoenician woman's daughter and a deaf man, showing His compassion crosses all boundaries.

The people gather for a day of fasting, confession, and worship. The Levites lead a long prayer recounting Israel's history from creation through the exodus, wilderness, conquest, and exile — acknowledging God's persistent faithfulness despite Israel's repeated unfaithfulness.

God commands the Israelites to give the Levites forty-eight cities with pasturelands throughout the nation. Six of these are designated as cities of refuge where someone who accidentally kills another can flee for protection from blood revenge. The chapter distinguishes between murder and manslaughter.

A penitential psalm of deep distress. David cries out for mercy, exhausted by grief and illness. He asks how long his suffering will last and pleads with God to save him because of unfailing love.

An acrostic prayer for guidance, forgiveness, and protection. David asks God to teach him his ways and remember mercy rather than youthful sins. He declares that God's friendship is for those who fear him.