Repentance in the Bible

David sinfully orders a census of Israel. God offers three punishments; David chooses plague, and 70,000 die. David sees the destroying angel at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, buys it, and builds an altar where God stops the plague — the future temple site.

John writes about the Word of life, which he heard, saw, and touched. God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. He urges believers to walk in the light and have fellowship with one another. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Samuel calls Israel to repentance, and they put away their foreign gods. At Mizpah, God thunders against the Philistines and gives Israel victory. Samuel sets up a stone called Ebenezer, saying thus far the Lord has helped us.

Samuel delivers his farewell address as judge, challenging Israel to testify against his integrity. He recounts God's faithfulness, warns against disobedience, and calls thunder and rain as a sign. He promises to continue praying for them.

Paul thanks God for the Thessalonians' faith, love, and hope. They received the gospel with power, joy, and the Holy Spirit despite persecution, becoming a model for believers throughout Macedonia and Achaia. They turned from idols to serve the living God and wait for His Son from heaven.

Solomon kneels before the entire assembly and prays an extensive dedication prayer. He asks God to hear prayers directed toward the temple — in times of sin, drought, famine, plague, war, and exile — and to forgive those who repent.

Fire falls from heaven and consumes the sacrifices, and God's glory fills the temple. God appears to Solomon at night with the famous promise: if My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, I will heal their land.

Rehoboam and Judah abandon God's law, and Shishak of Egypt invades with a massive army. When the leaders humble themselves, God grants partial deliverance but allows Egypt to plunder the temple treasures. Rehoboam's 17-year reign is summarized as one that did evil.

The prophet Azariah encourages Asa: The Lord is with you while you are with Him. Asa removes idols, repairs the altar, and leads a national covenant renewal ceremony. People from the northern tribes join Judah because they see God is with them.

Hezekiah reopens and consecrates the temple in his very first month as king. The Levites cleanse the temple, and Hezekiah restores sacrifices and worship with music. The whole assembly rejoices at how quickly God has restored worship.

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.

At age 16, Josiah begins seeking God. At 20 he purges idolatry from Judah. During temple repairs, the Book of the Law is found. When it is read to Josiah, he tears his robes and leads the nation in covenant renewal. The prophetess Huldah confirms coming judgment but promises it will not come in Josiah's lifetime.

Paul expresses joy at the Corinthians' repentance following his severe letter, delivered by Titus. He distinguishes between godly sorrow that leads to repentance and worldly sorrow that leads to death. His confidence in them is fully restored.

Young King Josiah orders temple repairs, and the Book of the Law is discovered. When it is read to Josiah, he tears his robes in anguish, realizing how far Judah has strayed. The prophetess Huldah confirms that judgment is coming but will be delayed because of Josiah's repentance.

The prophet Nathan confronts David with a parable about a rich man stealing a poor man's lamb. David condemns himself, and Nathan declares you are the man. David repents, but the child born to Bathsheba dies. Solomon is later born to them.

David sinfully orders a census of Israel. God gives him a choice of three punishments; David chooses plague, and 70,000 die. When the angel reaches Jerusalem, God relents. David buys Araunah's threshing floor and builds an altar — the future site of Solomon's temple.

The Holy Spirit is poured out at Pentecost with rushing wind and tongues of fire. Peter preaches powerfully, three thousand are saved and baptized. The early church is born, devoted to teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayer, sharing everything in common.

Peter and John heal a lame man at the temple gate called Beautiful. The healed man leaps and praises God, drawing a crowd. Peter seizes the moment to preach about Jesus as the Messiah, calling the people to repentance for the refreshing times that come from the Lord.

Paul preaches in Thessalonica and Berea, where the Bereans examine the Scriptures daily to verify his teaching. In Athens, Paul addresses the Areopagus, declaring the unknown God they worship is the Creator in whom we live and move and have our being, calling all people to repentance.

In Ephesus, Paul encounters disciples who have not received the Holy Spirit. He teaches in the hall of Tyrannus for two years. Extraordinary miracles occur. The silversmiths riot because Paul's preaching threatens their idol-making business for Artemis, causing a city-wide uproar.

Paul presents his most eloquent defense before King Agrippa, recounting his Pharisee background, his persecution of Christians, and the Damascus road encounter. He passionately proclaims the gospel to the king, who famously responds: Do you think in so short a time you can persuade me to become a Christian?

Amos calls the wealthy women of Samaria cows of Bashan who oppress the poor. God sent famine, drought, plague, and destruction — yet you did not return to me, repeats five times. If repeated discipline doesn't work, prepare to meet your God.

A funeral dirge for living Israel: she has fallen, never to rise again. Seek me and live — not Bethel, Gilgal, or Beersheba. Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. God hates their religious festivals because they are divorced from justice.

Nebuchadnezzar's testimony: he dreams of a great tree cut down, and Daniel interprets it as a warning. The king is driven to live like an animal for seven years until he acknowledges God's sovereignty. His reason returns and he praises the Most High — the only conversion testimony of a pagan king in Scripture.

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 prophesies that after exile and judgment, if Israel returns to God wholeheartedly, He will restore their fortunes, gather them from all nations, and circumcise their hearts to love Him. He sets before them the ultimate choice: life and death, blessing and curse. He pleads with them to choose life by loving and obeying God.

Three more devastating plagues strike Egypt: a disease kills all Egyptian livestock, painful boils afflict people and animals, and a severe hailstorm destroys crops and kills those caught in the open. God continues to distinguish between Egypt and Goshen. Pharaoh admits he has sinned but again hardens his heart.

God pronounces judgment on the mountains and high places of Israel where idolatry was practiced. The idols will be shattered and their worshipers will fall among them. Yet a remnant will survive, and in exile they will remember God and loathe their sinful past.

Ezekiel sees corrupt leaders in Jerusalem planning evil. God strikes one dead as a sign. The exiles are told they are actually closer to God than those in Jerusalem. God promises a new heart and a new spirit — removing the heart of stone and giving a heart of flesh.

Elders come to consult Ezekiel but have set up idols in their hearts. God refuses to answer them. Even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in the land, they could only save themselves — not the nation. Personal righteousness cannot substitute for national repentance.

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.

Ezra is horrified to discover that many returnees, including priests and Levites, have married foreign women from the surrounding peoples. He tears his garments and falls on his face in a passionate prayer of confession and repentance on behalf of the people.

The people respond to Ezra's grief with repentance and agree to put away their foreign wives. A process is established to investigate cases over three months. Those who married foreign women are listed, and the marriages are dissolved.

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 returned exiles have built their own paneled houses while God's temple lies in ruins. Haggai challenges them: consider your ways — you eat but never have enough, earn wages only to put them in a purse with holes. They obey and begin rebuilding the temple.

Judgment is pronounced against both Israel and Judah. Their pride testifies against them, and God will be like a moth and like rot to them — slow, persistent decay. Yet God will withdraw until they acknowledge their guilt and earnestly seek His face.

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.

Israel is like a half-baked cake — heated on one side, raw on the other. Their hearts burn with intrigue like an oven, mixing with nations, calling to Egypt and Assyria. They are like a faulty bow that misses every target.

Israel is a luxuriant vine that produced fruit for itself. Their heart is divided, their altars will be destroyed, and thorns will grow over their high places. The call: Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap steadfast love, break up your fallow ground — it is time to seek the Lord.

God recounts Jacob's history — wrestling with the angel, meeting God at Bethel — and challenges Israel to return like their ancestor did. Ephraim's lies and violence are condemned, while the prophet's role in delivering Israel from Egypt is affirmed.

The beautiful conclusion: Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God. God promises to heal their apostasy, love them freely, and be like dew to Israel. They will blossom like a lily, take root like Lebanon's cedars. Whoever is wise, let them understand these things.

God confronts Judah's rebellion, comparing them to Sodom and Gomorrah. He rejects their empty religious rituals and calls them to genuine justice and repentance, promising cleansing for those who return to Him.

An oracle against Damascus and northern Israel (Ephraim) who allied against Judah. Both will face devastation, but a remnant will turn back to God, forsaking their idols and altars to false gods.

A magnificent invitation: Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters — buy wine and milk without money. Seek the Lord while He may be found. God's thoughts are higher than ours, and His word never returns empty but accomplishes its purpose.

The righteous perish unnoticed while the wicked practice idolatry. Yet God lives in a high and holy place AND with the contrite and lowly in spirit. He promises to heal, guide, and create praise on the lips of mourners. But again — no peace for the wicked.

A passionate prayer for God to rend the heavens and come down. Israel confesses that all their righteous acts are like filthy rags. They plead with God as the potter who shaped them — do not be angry beyond measure, remember we are your people.

James diagnoses the root of conflict: desires that war within. He calls worldliness spiritual adultery and urges believers to submit to God and resist the devil, who will then flee. He warns against judging others and presuming on the future—life is a mist that appears briefly and vanishes.

The angel of the Lord rebukes Israel for making treaties with Canaanites. After Joshua's generation dies, a new generation abandons God. The cyclical pattern of Judges is introduced: sin, oppression, crying out, and deliverance.

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.

Judgment from the north approaches like a lion from its thicket. Jeremiah agonizes over the coming destruction and sees a vision of creation undone — the earth formless and void again. He pleads with Jerusalem to wash its heart from evil.

God challenges Jeremiah to find even one just person in Jerusalem — if one exists, He will forgive the city. But the people are rebellious, their prophets speak lies, and they have no fear of God despite His power over the sea and seasons.

Disaster approaches from the north as God tells Jeremiah to sound the alarm. The people refuse correction, their ears are closed. Jeremiah is appointed as a tester of metals — the people are rejected silver, impure and worthless despite refining.

The famous Temple Sermon: Jeremiah stands at the temple gates warning not to trust in the mere presence of the temple building. Worship without justice is meaningless. God reminds them of Shiloh's destruction and threatens the same fate for Jerusalem.

The people persist in deception, with priests and prophets offering superficial peace. Jeremiah laments: the harvest is past, the summer ended, and we are not saved. Even the stork knows its seasons, but God's people don't know His requirements.

God uses a linen belt and wineskins as object lessons. The belt buried by the Euphrates and ruined symbolizes how God will ruin Judah's pride. The chapter warns of coming exile and laments whether Ethiopia can change its skin or a leopard its spots.

God sends Jeremiah to the potter's house. As the potter reshapes a marred vessel, so God can reshape nations. When the people plot against Jeremiah, he prays for judgment on his persecutors — one of his most raw, honest prayers.

Jeremiah preaches the Temple Sermon (chapter 7) and is arrested, tried for blasphemy, and nearly executed. Elders defend him by citing the precedent of Micah the prophet. He narrowly escapes death, while prophet Uriah is not so fortunate.

The Rechabites obey their ancestor's command to never drink wine, even when Jeremiah offers it to them. God uses their faithfulness as a shaming contrast: the Rechabites obey a human father, but Israel won't obey their heavenly Father.

God tells Jeremiah to write his prophecies on a scroll. When it's read to King Jehoiakim, he cuts it apart and burns it section by section. God commands a new scroll with all the original words plus more — the word of God cannot be destroyed.

Bildad speaks, arguing that God does not pervert justice and that Job's children must have sinned. He urges Job to seek God and promises restoration if Job is truly pure and upright.

Zophar speaks harshly, accusing Job of empty talk and insisting that God is actually punishing him less than he deserves. He urges Job to repent and promises that life will become brighter than noonday.

Eliphaz's third speech makes specific false accusations against Job, claiming he oppressed the poor and denied bread to the hungry. He urges Job to return to God and be restored.

God challenges Job to answer, and Job humbly puts his hand over his mouth. God then describes Behemoth, a mighty creature that demonstrates divine power far beyond human ability to control.

Job repents in dust and ashes, saying he now sees God with his own eyes rather than by hearsay. God rebukes the three friends and vindicates Job. God restores Job's fortunes, giving him twice what he had before.

A devastating locust plague — wave after wave — strips the land bare. Joel calls the people to mourn, fast, and cry out to God. The priests should weep between the porch and altar. The day of the Lord is near, and even the animals groan.

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.

Jerusalem sits desolate like a widow, once great among nations now a slave. The city weeps bitterly in the night with no one to comfort her. She acknowledges her rebellion while crying out to God in her suffering — a raw lament over the fall of the holy city.

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 presents the blessings and curses of the covenant. Obedience brings rain, harvests, peace, and God's presence. Disobedience brings terror, disease, famine, exile, and the land made desolate. Yet even in judgment, God promises that if they confess their sins, He will remember His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

John the Baptist preaches repentance and baptizes in the Jordan. He challenges the crowds to produce fruit worthy of repentance and prepares the way for Jesus. Jesus is baptized, the Holy Spirit descends, and the Father speaks. Luke traces Jesus' genealogy back to Adam and God.

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.

God will send His messenger to prepare the way — fulfilled by John the Baptist. Then the Lord will suddenly come to His temple. God challenges: return to Me and I will return to you. Bring the full tithe and test Me — I will open heaven's floodgates of blessing. I the Lord do not change — therefore you are not consumed.

John the Baptist appears in the wilderness preaching repentance and baptizing in the Jordan River. Jesus comes to be baptized, and the heavens open with the Spirit descending like a dove and the Father's voice declaring Him beloved Son.

Jesus praises John the Baptist and pronounces woes on unrepentant cities. He offers one of the most tender invitations in Scripture: Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. He reveals the Father's heart for the humble.

Mark opens with John the Baptist preparing the way, Jesus' baptism, and His temptation in the wilderness. Jesus begins His ministry in Galilee, calling His first disciples and demonstrating authority over sickness and demons with rapid-fire miracles.

Nehemiah, cupbearer to King Artaxerxes in Persia, learns that Jerusalem's walls are still broken and its gates burned. Devastated, he weeps, fasts, and prays a powerful prayer of confession and petition, asking God to grant him favor with the king.

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.

Proverbs on justice, confession, and integrity. The wicked flee though no one pursues but the righteous are as bold as a lion. Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.