42 Bible Verses about Repentance, Examples Of
Most Relevant Verses
Peter answered them, "Every one of you must repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus the Messiah for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the Holy Spirit as a gift.
However, God's solid foundation still stands. It has this inscription on it: "The Lord knows those who belong to him," and "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord must turn away from evil."
Then the LORD enabled Balaam to see, so he observed the angel of the LORD standing in the way, with an unsheathed sword in his hand. So he bowed down and prostrated himself on his face. Then the angel of the LORD asked him, "Why did you beat your donkey in the space of only three footsteps? I've come to oppose you, because I say that what you're doing is perverted. The donkey saw me and turned in front of me in the space of those three footsteps. read more.
If she hadn't turned away from me, I would have killed you by now and left her alive!" At this, Balaam replied to the angel of the LORD, "I've sinned! I didn't know that you were standing to meet me on the road. So now, since it displeases you, let me go back." But the angel of the LORD told Balaam, "Go with the men, but deliver only the message that I'm going to give you." So Balaam went with Balak's officials.
Later, David's conscience bothered him after he had numbered the army, so David told the LORD, "I have sinned greatly by what I did. But now I am asking you, please remove the guilt of your servant, since I have acted very foolishly."
David responded to God, "I sinned greatly by behaving this way. But now I am asking you, please remove the guilt of your servant, since I have acted very foolishly."
Nevertheless, as soon as Ahab heard this message, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and fasted. He even slept in sackcloth and wandered around meekly. Later, this message from the LORD came to Elijah the foreigner: "Have you noticed that Ahab has humbled himself in my presence? Because he has humbled himself in my presence, I will not bring his evil to harvest during his lifetime, but I will bring evil to his household during his son's lifetime."
because your heart was sensitive, and you humbled yourself in the LORD's presence when you heard what I had to say against this place and against its inhabitants that they would become a desolation and a curse and you have torn your clothes and cried out before me, be assured that I have truly heard you,' declares the LORD.
Have mercy, God, according to your gracious love, according to your unlimited compassion, erase my transgressions. Wash me from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgression; my sin remains continuously before me.read more.
Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done what was evil in your sight. As a result, you are just in your pronouncement and clear in your judgment. Indeed, in iniquity I was brought forth; in sin my mother conceived me. Indeed, you are pleased with truth in the inner person, and you will teach me wisdom in my innermost parts. Purge me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me know joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your countenance from my sins and erase the record of my iniquities. God, create a pure heart in me, and renew a right attitude within me. Do not cast me from your presence; do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and let a willing attitude control me. Then I will teach transgressors about your ways, and sinners will turn to you. Deliver me from the guilt of shedding blood, God, God of my salvation. Then my tongue will sing about your righteousness. Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. Indeed, you do not delight in sacrifices, or I would give them, nor do you desire burnt offerings. True sacrifice to God is a broken spirit. A broken and chastened heart, God, you will not despise.
Then his son told him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and you. I don't deserve to be called your son anymore.'
"But the tax collector stood at a distance and would not even look up to heaven. Instead, he continued to beat his chest and said, "O God, be merciful to me, the sinner that I am!'
Peter remembered the words of Jesus when he said, "Before a rooster crows, you'll deny me three times." Then he went outside and cried bitterly.
Just then a rooster crowed a second time. Peter remembered that Jesus told him, "Before a rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times." Then he broke down and cried.
Then the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. And Peter remembered the word from the Lord, and how he had told him, "Before a rooster crows today, you will deny me three times." So he went outside and cried bitterly.
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" Peter told him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus told him, "Feed my lambs." Then he asked him a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter told him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus told him, "Take care of my sheep." He asked him a third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was deeply hurt that he had asked him a third time, "Do you love me?" So he told him, "Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you!"
So repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, your heart's intent may be forgiven you. For I see that you're being poisoned by bitterness and you're a prisoner of wickedness!" Simon answered, "Both of you pray to the Lord for me that none of the things you have said will happen to me."
At one moment I may speak about a nation or a kingdom to uproot it, pull it down, or destroy it. But if that nation about which I spoke turns from its evil way, I'll change my mind about the disaster that I had planned for it.
Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Caesar Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, and Annas and Caiaphas high priests, a message from God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. John went throughout the entire Jordan region, proclaiming a baptism about repentance for the forgiveness of sins, read more.
as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, "He is a voice calling out in the wilderness: "Prepare the way for the Lord! Make his paths straight! Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be leveled. The crooked ways will be made straight, and the rough roads will be made smooth. Everyone will see the salvation that God has provided.'"
Then the people approached Moses and admitted, "We've sinned by speaking against the LORD and you. Pray to the LORD, that he'll remove the serpents from us." So Moses prayed in behalf of the people.
The Israelis replied to the LORD, "We have sinned, so do to us anything that's right to do in your opinion, just please deliver us right now." When they put away their foreign gods and served the LORD, he brought Israel's misery to an end.
Then Samuel told the whole house of Israel, "If you're returning to the LORD with all your heart, then remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you, direct your hearts back to the LORD, and serve him only. Then he will deliver you from the control of the Philistines." So the Israelis removed the Baals and Ashtaroth, and served the LORD only.
At that time, they will worship with sacrifices and offerings, and they will make vows to the LORD and carry them out. The LORD will strike Egypt with a plague, striking but then healing. Then they will turn to the LORD, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them.
Now when Peter was going around among all of the disciples, he also visited the saints living in Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas who was paralyzed and had been bedridden for eight years. Peter told him, "Aeneas, Jesus the Messiah is healing you. Get up and put away your mat!" At once he got up, read more.
and all the people who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.
Now while Ezra was praying and confessing in tears, having prostrated himself to the ground before the Temple of God, a very large crowd of Israelis men, women, and children gathered around him. Indeed, the people were crying bitterly.
At this, the king sent for and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. The king went up to the LORD's Temple, accompanied by all the men of Judah, everyone who lived in Jerusalem, the priests, the prophets, and everyone including those who were unimportant and those who were important and he read to them everything written in the Book of the Covenant that had been discovered in the LORD's Temple. The king stood beside a pillar and made a covenant in the presence of the LORD: to follow after the LORD, to keep his commandments, his testimonies, and his statutes with all of his heart and soul, and to carry out what was written in the covenant contained in the book. All the people consented to enter into the covenant.read more.
The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the secondary order, and the doorkeepers to take out of the LORD's Temple all of the implements that had been crafted for Baal, for Asherah, and for every star in the heavens. Then he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried the ashes to Bethel. The king unseated the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places throughout the cities of Judah and in the environs surrounding Jerusalem, including those who had been burning incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to every star in the heavens. He brought the Asherah from the LORD's Temple to the Kidron Brook outside Jerusalem, burned it at the Kidron brook, pulverized the ashes to dust, and scattered it over the graves of the common people. He also demolished the temples of the cultic male prostitutes that had been operating in the LORD's Temple, where the women had been doing weaving for the Asherah.
Encouraged by what Oded's son Azariah the prophet had said in his prophecy, Asa removed the detestable idols from throughout the entire territories of Judah and Benjamin, and from the cities that he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. He repaired the LORD's altar that stood in front of the vestibule of the LORD's Temple. Then he gathered together all of Judah, Benjamin, and people from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were living among them, since many people had defected to him from Israel when they learned that the LORD his God was with him. They all assembled in Jerusalem during the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa's reign. read more.
They sacrificed to the LORD that day 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep from the spoil that they had brought with them. They also entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their ancestors with all their heart and soul, and they further agreed that whoever would refuse to seek the LORD God of Israel was to be executed, whether important or unimportant, man or woman. They also made a vow to the LORD with loud voices, shouting, trumpets, and horns. Everybody in Judah was very glad to make their oath, because they had made their vow with all their heart and had sought him with all of their might, and they found him! The LORD also gave them rest in their surrounding lands.
Couriers were sent throughout all of Israel and Judah with letters written by the king and his princes, just as the king had commanded: "Listen, you descendants of Israel! Come back to the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so he may come back to those of you who have escaped and survived from domination by the kings of Assyria. Don't be like your ancestors and your relatives, who weren't faithful to the LORD God of their ancestors, who, as a result, made them a desolate horror, as you well know. So don't be stiff-necked like your ancestors were. Instead, submit to the LORD, enter his sanctuary that he has sanctified forever, and serve the LORD your God so that he'll stop being angry with you. read more.
If you return to the LORD, your relatives and children will receive compassion from those who took them away captive, and they'll return to this land, because the LORD is both gracious and compassionate he will not turn away from you if you return to him."
Ezra the priest stood up and spoke to them, "You have sinned by marrying foreign wives, thereby increasing the transgressions of Israel. Now confess this to the LORD God of your ancestors, and separate yourselves from the nations of the land and from foreign wives." At this, the entire community responded with a loud cry, "We will do just as you've spoken!
When the message reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, removed his royal garments, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat down in ashes. Then he had this proclamation published throughout Nineveh: "By decree of the king and his nobles: No man or animal, herd or flock, is to taste anything, graze, or drink water. Instead, let both man and animal clothe themselves with sackcloth and cry out to God forcefully. Let every person turn from his evil ways and from his tendency to do violence.
However, I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first. Therefore, remember how far you have fallen. Repent and go back to what you were doing at first. If you don't, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place unless you repent.
Now I am happy, not because you had such sorrow, but because your sorrow led you to repent. For you were sorry in a godly way, and so you were not hurt by us in any way. For having sorrow in a godly way results in repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regrets. But the sorrow of the world produces death. See what great earnestness godly sorrow has produced in you! How ready you are to clear yourselves, how indignant, how alarmed, how full of longing and enthusiasm, how eager to seek justice! In every way you have demonstrated that you are innocent in this matter.
But I have a few things against you: You have there some who hold to the teaching of Balaam, the one who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the people of Israel so that they would eat food sacrificed to idols and practice immorality. You also have some who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. So repent. If you don't, I will come to you quickly and wage war against them with the sword of my mouth.
So remember what you received and heard. Obey it, and repent. If you are not alert, I will come like a thief, and you won't know the time when I will come to you.
Nevertheless, as soon as Ahab heard this message, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and fasted. He even slept in sackcloth and wandered around meekly.
The people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least important.
Then I called for a fast there at the Ahava River so we could humble ourselves before our God and seek from him an appropriate way for us and our little ones to live, and how we should guard our personal wealth,
On the twenty-fourth day of this same month, the Israelis gathered together while fasting, wearing sackcloth, and covering themselves with dust.
In the ninth month of the fifth year of the reign of Josiah's son Jehoiakim, king of Judah, a fast was proclaimed in the LORD's presence in Jerusalem for all the people of Jerusalem, as well as all the people who were coming from the towns of Judah.
"Put on your mourning clothes, you priests; and cry aloud, you ministering servants at the altar! Come! Stay the night in mourner's clothes, you ministers of my God, because the grain offering and the wine offering is held back from the Temple of your God. Set apart time for a fast! Call a solemn assembly! Gather the elders and everyone living in the land to the Temple of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD!"
"Yet even now," declares the LORD, "Turn back to me with your whole heart, with fasting, tears, and mourning.
As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, "See! I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way. He is a voice calling out in the wilderness: "Prepare the way for the Lord! Make his paths straight!'" John was baptizing in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism about repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
