42 Bible Verses about Repentance, Examples Of

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

The foundation of God stands firm having this seal: Jehovah knows those who belong to him, and: Everyone who names the name of Jehovah is to abstain from wickedness.

Then Jehovah let Balaam see the angel standing there with his sword. Balaam threw himself face down on the ground. The angel demanded: Why have you beaten your donkey three times like this? I have come to bar your way, because you should not be making this journey. But your donkey saw me and turned aside three times. If it had not, I would have killed you and spared the donkey.read more.
Balaam replied: I have sinned. I did not know that you were standing in the road to oppose me. Now if you think it is wrong for me to go on I will return home. But the angel said: Go on with these men, but say only what I tell you to say. Thus Balaam went on with them.

After David had everyone counted, he felt guilty and told Jehovah: What I did was stupid and terribly wrong. Jehovah, please forgive me.

David said to God: I have committed a terrible sin in doing this! Please forgive me. I have acted foolishly.

Elijah finished speaking. Ahab tore his clothes and took them off. He dressed in sackcloth. He refused food (fasted) and slept in the sackcloth. He was gloomy and depressed. Jehovah said to the prophet Elijah: Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Since he has done this, I will not bring disaster on him during his lifetime. It will be during his son's lifetime that I will bring disaster on Ahab's family.

You had a change of heart and humbled yourself in front of Jehovah when you heard my words against this place and those who live here. I said that those who live here would be destroyed and cursed. You also tore your clothes in distress and cried in front of me. So I will listen to you,' declares Jehovah.

Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.

([[Psalm of David] when the prophet Nathan came to him after David's adultery with Bathsheba:]) Have mercy on me, O God, in keeping with your loving-kindness. According to your unlimited compassion, wipe out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my perversity (iniquity) (guilt), and cleanse me from my sin. I admit my transgressions. My sin is always in front of me.read more.
I have sinned against you, especially you. I have done what you consider evil in your sight. So you hand down justice when you speak, and you are blameless when you judge. Indeed, I was born in perversity (mischief) (evil). I was a sinner when my mother conceived me. Yet, you desire truth from the secret person within me. Deep down inside me teach me wisdom. Purify me from sin with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Make me hear sounds of joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face (turn away) from my sins, and wipe out (erase) all that I have done wrong. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast (dependable) spirit within me. Do not force me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore the joy of your salvation to me, and establish a willing spirit in me. I will teach your ways to transgressors, and sinners will turn to you. Rescue (deliver) me from the bloodguilt of murder O God of my salvation. Let my tongue sing joyfully about your righteousness! O Jehovah, open my lips (help me speak), and my mouth will speak your praise. You do not desire sacrifice. Otherwise, I would offer one to you. You are not pleased with burnt offerings. The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. O God, you do not despise a broken and sorrowful (contrite) heart.

Father, the son said: 'I have sinned against God and against you. I am not fit to be called your son.'

But the tax collector stood far away and would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven. He beat his breast, saying: God, be merciful to me a sinner.

Peter remembered what Jesus told him: Before the rooster crows you will deny me three times. He went out and wept bitterly.

Then a rooster crowed. Peter remembered what Jesus said: Before the rooster crows two times, you will deny me three times. He broke down and cried.

The Lord turned and looked at Peter. Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he said to him: Before the cockcrow this day you will deny me three times. He left there and wept bitterly.

When they had eaten Jesus said to Simon Peter: Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? He said: Yes Lord; you know I have affection for you. Jesus said to him: Feed my lambs. He spoke to him a second time: Simon, son of John, do you love me? He replied: Yes Lord, you know I have affection for you. Then Jesus said: Shepherd my sheep. The third time Jesus said to him: Simon, son of John, do you have affection for me? Peter was grieved. Because he said to him the third time, do you have affection for me? Peter replied: Lord, you know all things; you know I have affection for you! Jesus said to him: Feed my sheep.

Repent of this wickedness, and pray to God, that the thought in your heart may be forgiven you. For I perceive that you are full of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. Simon answered: Pray to God for me, that none of these things that you have spoken will happen to me.

At one time I may threaten to tear up, break down, and destroy a nation or a kingdom. However if the nation that I threatened turns away from doing wrong. Then I will change my plans about the disaster I planned to do to it.

It was the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar. Pontius Pilate was governor of Judaea. Herod served as tetrarch of Galilee. Herod's brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis. Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene. This was in the time when Annas and Caiaphas were chief priests. The word of God was delivered to John the son of Zechariah. He was in the wilderness. John traveled in the region near the Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.read more.
This was according to the words of Isaiah the prophet: The voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make ready the way of Jehovah. Make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled. Every mountain and hill shall be brought low. The crooked shall become straight and the rough ways smooth. All flesh shall see the salvation of God. (Isaiah 40:3-6)

The people came to Moses and said: We sinned when we criticized Jehovah and you. Pray to Jehovah so that he will take the snakes away from us. So Moses prayed for the people.

But the people of Israel said to Jehovah: We have sinned. Do to us what seems best to you, only please, save us today! So they removed the foreign gods and worshiped Jehovah. He could bear the distress of Israel no longer.

Samuel told the entire nation of Israel: If you return to Jehovah with all your hearts you must get rid of the foreign gods you have, including the statues of the goddess Astarte. You must dedicate your lives to Jehovah and serve him only. Then he will rescue you from the Philistines. So the Israelites got rid of their idols of Baal and Astarte. They worshiped only Jehovah.

Jehovah will strike Egypt, striking but healing; so they will turn to Jehovah, and he will respond to them and will heal them.

Peter traveled through all parts. He came to the holy ones at Lydda. He found a man named Aeneas who lay in his bed for eight years. He was sick of the palsy. Peter said to him: Aeneas, Jesus Christ makes you whole! Stand up and take your bed. And he stood up immediately.read more.
All who lived at Lydda on the Plain of Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

While Ezra was saying his prayer and his confession of wrongdoing he wept and fell down before the house of God. A very great number of men and women and children out of Israel came together around him, for the people were weeping bitterly.

Then the king sent for all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to join him. The king went up to the Temple of Jehovah. All the inhabitants of Judah young and old also went to Jehovah's Temple. Josiah read everything written in the Book of the Promise found in Jehovah's Temple so they could all hear it. The king stood beside the pillar and made a promise to Jehovah that he would follow Jehovah and obey his commands, instructions, and laws with all his heart and mind. He confirmed the terms of the promise written in this book. All the people joined in the promise.read more.
Then the king ordered the high priest Hilkiah, the priests who served under Hilkiah, and the doorkeepers to remove from Jehovah's Temple all utensils that had been made for Baal, Asherah, and the entire army of heaven. Josiah burned the utensils outside Jerusalem. It was in an open field near the Kidron Brook. Then he carried their ashes to Bethel. He got rid of the pagan priests. The kings of Judah appointed them to sacrifice at the illegal places of worship in the cities of Judah and all around Jerusalem. They had been sacrificing to Baal, the sun god, the moon god, the constellations of the zodiac (Mazzalohth Constellation-Job 38:32), and the entire army of heaven. He removed the pole dedicated to the goddess Asherah from the temple. He took it to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem. There he burned it in the Kidron Valley, ground it to dust, and threw its ashes on the tombs of the common people. He tore down the houses of the male temple (cult) prostitutes who were in Jehovah's Temple. This is where women did weaving for Asherah.

Asa heard the prophet Oded's words of prophecy. He was encouraged and put away the detestable idols from all of Judah, Benjamin, and the cities he had captured in the mountains of Ephraim. He also repaired Jehovah's altar in front of Jehovah's entrance hall. Then Asa gathered all the people from Judah and Benjamin and the foreigners who had come from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon. Many of them had come to him from Israel when they saw that Asa's God, Jehovah, was with him. In the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa's reign, they gathered in Jerusalem.read more.
They sacrificed to Jehovah a part of the loot they brought with them: seven hundred cattle and seven thousand sheep. They made an agreement with one another to dedicate their lives to serve the true God Jehovah, the God of their ancestors with all their heart and all their being. All people, young and old, male and female, who refused to dedicate their lives to the true God Jehovah the God of Israel were to be killed. Asa and the people swore their oath to Jehovah with shouts, singing, and the blowing of trumpets and rams' horns. All the people of Judah were overjoyed because of the oath. They took the oath wholeheartedly. They took great pleasure in looking for Jehovah. And he let them find him. So Jehovah surrounded them with rest and peace.

Messengers carried letters from the king and his officials throughout Israel and Judah. The king's order said: Israelites should return to Jehovah the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. Then he will return to the few of you who escaped from the power of the kings of Assyria. Do not be like your ancestors and your relatives who were unfaithful to Jehovah the God of their ancestors. He made them something that shocks people, as you have seen. Do not stiffen your neck like your fathers, but yield to Jehovah and enter his sanctuary that he has consecrated from generation to generation. Serve Jehovah your God that His burning anger may turn away from you.read more.
If you return to Jehovah, your brothers and your sons will find compassion before those who led them captive and will return to this land. Jehovah your God is gracious and compassionate. He will not turn his face away from you if you return to him.

Ezra the priest got to his feet and said to them: You have done wrong and taken strange women for your wives, thus increasing the sin of Israel. Give praise to Jehovah, the God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the strange women. Then all the people, answered with a loud voice: As you have said, so it is right for us to do.

The news reached the king of Nineveh. He left his throne, and took off his robe and covered himself with sackcloth. Then he sat in ashes. He made proclamation and published it in Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not eat, nor drink water. Let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and beast. Let them sincerely call on God! Let them turn away each one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands.

However I have this against you: you do not love me now as you did at first. Think how far you have fallen! Turn from your sins (repent) and do what you did at first. If you do not turn from your sins, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place.

I now rejoice, not because you were made sorry, but that you were made sorry to repentance; for you were made sorry after a godly fashion, that you might not suffer loss by us. For godly sorrow works repentance leading to salvation. This is a repentance that brings no regret: but the sorrow of the world works death. This very thing that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it made in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, yes what vindication! You demonstrated yourself to innocent in the matter.

I have a few things against you: you have people there who hold to the teachings of Balaam, who taught Balak to present a snare to the sons of Israel, to eat of idol sacrifices and commit fornication. You also have those who hold the doctrine (teaching) of the sect of Nicolaus in like manner. Turn away from your sins! If you do not repent I will come to you soon. And I will fight against those people with the sword that comes out of my mouth.

Remember what you received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If you do not stay awake, I will come to you like a thief. You will not know the hour when I will come to you.

Elijah finished speaking. Ahab tore his clothes and took them off. He dressed in sackcloth. He refused food (fasted) and slept in the sackcloth. He was gloomy and depressed.

The people of Nineveh believed God and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

The Israelites gathered at Mizpah. They drew some water, poured it out in front of Jehovah and fasted that day. They confessed: We have sinned against Jehovah. So Samuel judged Israel in Mizpah.

Then I gave orders for a time of going without food, there by the Ahava River, so that we might make ourselves low before our God in prayer, requesting from him a safe journey for us and for our little ones and for all our substance.

Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel came together, taking no food and putting sackcloth and dust on their bodies.

In the ninth month of the fifth year of the reign of Jehoiakim, son of King Josiah of Judah, a time for fasting was called. It was a time for all the people in Jerusalem and for everyone who was coming from any city in Judah to Jerusalem to fast in Jehovah's presence.

Gird yourselves with sackcloth, and lament, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth you ministers of my God! The meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from the House of your God. Sanctify a fast! Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the House of Jehovah your God. Call out to Jehovah.

Even now, said Jehovah, turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning!

The prophet Isaiah wrote: I am sending my messenger ahead of you to prepare your way. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of Jehovah (YHWH), make his paths straight. (Isaiah 40:3) John the Baptist was in the desert (wilderness) telling people to repent (turn away from sin) and be baptized for forgiveness of sins.