And the Lord went past before his eyes, saying, The Lord, the Lord, a God full of pity and grace, slow to wrath and great in mercy and faith;

The Lord is slow to wrath and great in mercy, overlooking wrongdoing and evil, and will not let wrongdoers go free; sending punishment on children for the sins of their fathers, to the third and fourth generation.

O Lord, you have knowledge: keep me in mind and come to my help, and give their right reward to those who are attacking me; take me not away, for you are slow to be angry: see how I have undergone shame because of you from all those who make little of your word;

And because he was not able to make payment, his lord gave orders for him, and his wife, and his sons and daughters, and all he had, to be given for money, and payment to be made.

So that servant went down on his face, requesting him and saying, Give me time and I will make payment to you.

And will not God do right in the cause of his saints, whose cries come day and night to his ears, though he is long in doing it?

The more so, because you are expert in all questions to do with the Jews and their ways: so I make my request to you to give me a hearing to the end.

Or is it nothing to you that God had pity on you, waiting and putting up with you for so long, not seeing that in his pity God's desire is to give you a change of heart?

What if God, desiring to let his wrath and his power be seen, for a long time put up with the vessels of wrath which were ready for destruction:

Love is never tired of waiting; love is kind; love has no envy; love has no high opinion of itself, love has no pride;

In blows, in prisons, in attacks, in hard work, in watchings, in going without food;

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, a quiet mind, kind acts, well-doing, faith,

With all gentle and quiet behaviour, taking whatever comes, putting up with one another in love;

Full of strength in the measure of the great power of his glory, so that you may undergo all troubles with joy;

As saints of God, then, holy and dearly loved, let your behaviour be marked by pity and mercy, kind feeling, a low opinion of yourselves, gentle ways, and a power of undergoing all things;

But for this reason I was given mercy, so that in me, the chief of sinners, Jesus Christ might make clear all his mercy, as an example to those who in the future would have faith in him to eternal life.

A man whose opinions are not those of the church, after a first and second protest, is to be kept out of your society;

So that you may not be slow in heart, but may take as your example those to whom God has given their heritage, because of their faith and their long waiting.

Go on waiting calmly, my brothers, till the coming of the Lord, like the farmer waiting for the good fruit of the earth till the early and late rains have come.

Take as an example of pain nobly undergone and of strength in trouble, the prophets who gave to men the words of the Lord.

The Lord is not slow in keeping his word, as he seems to some, but he is waiting in mercy for you, not desiring the destruction of any, but that all may be turned from their evil ways.

And be certain that the long waiting of the Lord is for salvation; even as our brother Paul has said in his letters to you, from the wisdom which was given to him;