42 Bible Verses about Repentance, Examples Of
Most Relevant Verses
Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
However God's firm foundation stands, having this seal, "The Lord knows those who are his," and, "Let every one who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness."
Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, with his sword drawn in his hand; and he bowed his head, and fell on his face. The angel of the LORD said to him, "Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come forth as an adversary, because your way is perverse before me: and the donkey saw me, and turned aside before me these three times. Unless she had turned aside from me, surely now I would have killed you, and saved her alive."read more.
Balaam said to the angel of the LORD, "I have sinned; for I did not know that you stood in the way against me. Now therefore, if it displeases you, I will go back again." The angel of the LORD said to Balaam, "Go with the men; but only the word that I shall speak to you, that you shall speak." So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.
David's heart struck him after that he had numbered the people. David said to the LORD, "I have sinned greatly in that which I have done. But now, LORD, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly."
David said to God, "I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly."
It happened, when Ahab heard those words, that he tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly. The word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, "See how Ahab humbles himself before me? Because he humbles himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days; but in his son's days will I bring the disaster on his house."
because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before the LORD, when you heard what I spoke against this place, and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and have torn your clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard you,' says the LORD.
Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me.read more.
Against you, and you only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight; that you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived me. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness, That the bones which you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. Do not throw me from your presence, and do not take your holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways. Sinners shall be converted to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation. My tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness. Lord, open my lips. My mouth shall declare your praise. For you do not delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'
But the tax collector, standing far away, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner.'
Peter remembered the word which Jesus had said, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times." He went out and wept bitterly.
And immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Peter remembered the word, how that Jesus said to him, "Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times." When he thought about that, he wept.
The Lord turned, and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the Lord's word, how he said to him, "Before the rooster crows today you will deny me three times." And he went out, and wept bitterly.
So when they had eaten their breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I have affection for you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs." He said to him again a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I have affection for you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep." He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you have affection for me?" Peter was grieved because he asked him the third time, "Do you have affection for me?" He said to him, "Lord, you know everything. You know that I have affection for you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep.
Repent therefore of this, your wickedness, and ask the Lord if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity." Simon answered, "Pray for me to the Lord, that none of the things which you have spoken happen to me."
At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it; if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them.
Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. He came into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming the baptism of repentance for remission of sins.read more.
As it is written in the scroll of the words of Isaiah the prophet, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make ready the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight. Every valley will be filled. Every mountain and hill will be brought low. The crooked will become straight, and the rough ways smooth. All flesh will see God's salvation.'"
The people came to Moses, and said, "We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD, and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us." Moses prayed for the people.
The children of Israel said to the LORD, "We have sinned. Do to us whatever seems good to you; only deliver us, please, this day." They put away the foreign gods from among them, and served the LORD; and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.
Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, "If you do return to the LORD with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you, and direct your hearts to the LORD, and serve him only; and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines." Then the children of Israel removed the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and served the LORD only.
The LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing. They will return to the LORD, and he will listen to their pleas, and will heal them.
It happened, as Peter went throughout all those parts, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda. There he found a certain man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden for eight years, because he was paralyzed. Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and make your bed." Immediately he arose.read more.
All who lived at Lydda and in Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.
Now while Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before God's house, there was gathered together to him out of Israel a very great assembly of men and women and children; for the people wept very bitterly.
The king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. The king went up to the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD. The king stood by the pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and all his soul, to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in this book: and all the people stood to the covenant.read more.
The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring forth out of the LORD's temple all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the Asherah, and for all the host of heaven, and he burned them outside of Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. He put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven. He brought out the Asherah from the house of the LORD, outside of Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and beat it to dust, and cast its dust on the graves of the common people. He broke down the living quarters of the temple prostitutes, that were in the house of the LORD, where the women wove coverings for the Asherah.
When Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominations out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from the hill country of Ephraim; and he renewed the altar of the LORD, that was before the porch of the LORD. He gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those who lived with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon: for they fell to him out of Israel in abundance, when they saw that the LORD his God was with him. So they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa.read more.
They sacrificed to the LORD in that day, of the spoil which they had brought, seven hundred head of cattle and seven thousand sheep. They entered into the covenant to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul; and that whoever would not seek the LORD, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. They swore to the LORD with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets. All Judah rejoiced at the oath; for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought him with their whole desire; and he was found of them: and the LORD gave them rest all around.
So the couriers went with the letters from the king and his officers throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, "children of Israel, turn again to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may return to the remnant of you who have escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria. Do not be like your fathers, and like your brothers, who trespassed against the LORD, the God of their fathers, so that he gave them up to desolation, as you see. Now do not be stiff-necked, as your fathers were; but yield yourselves to the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever, and serve the LORD your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you.read more.
For if you turn again to the LORD, your brothers and your children shall find compassion before those who led them captive, and shall come again into this land: for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him."
Ezra the priest stood up, and said to them, "You have trespassed, and have married foreign women, to increase the guilt of Israel. Now therefore make confession to the LORD, the God of your fathers, and do his pleasure; and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land, and from the foreign women." Then all the assembly answered with a loud voice, "As you have said concerning us, so must we do.
The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. He made a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, "Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water; but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands.
But I have this against you, that you left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the first works; or else I am coming to you, and will move your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent.
I now rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that you were made sorry to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly way, that you might suffer loss by us in nothing. For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world works death. For behold, this same thing, that you were made sorry in a godly way, what earnest care it worked in you. Yes, what defense, indignation, fear, longing, zeal, and vengeance. In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be pure in the matter.
But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to throw a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. So you also have some who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans likewise. Repent therefore, or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth.
Remember therefore how you have received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If therefore you do not wake up, I will come as a thief, and you won't know what hour I will come to you.
It happened, when Ahab heard those words, that he tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.
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.
They gathered together to Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it out before the LORD, and fasted on that day, and said there, "We have sinned against the LORD." Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah.
Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek of him a straight way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance.
Now in the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackcloth, and earth on them.
Now it happened in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, that all the people in Jerusalem, and all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem, proclaimed a fast before the LORD.
Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests. Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God's house. Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders, and all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of the LORD, your God, and cry to the LORD.
"Yet even now," says the LORD, "turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning."
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, "Look, I send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make ready the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.'" John came baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming the baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins.
