49 Bible Verses about Repentance, Nature Of

Yet the LORD testified to Israel, and to Judah, by every prophet, and every seer, saying, "Turn from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets."

For they themselves report concerning us what kind of a reception we had from you; and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God,

Depart from evil, and do good. Seek peace, and pursue it.

let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

"Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to the living God, who made the sky and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them;

Be subject therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom.read more.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

For though I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. For I see that my letter made you sorry, though just for a while. 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.

Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves those who have a crushed spirit.

For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

For all these things has my hand made, and so all these things came to be," says the LORD: "but to this man will I look, even to him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.

"Yet even now," says the LORD, "turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning." Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to the LORD, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.

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.'

But when he came to himself he said, 'How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough to spare, and I'm dying with hunger. I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants."'

It shall be, when he is guilty of one of these, he shall confess that in which he has sinned:

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.

He who conceals his sins doesn't prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

Israel, return to the LORD your God; for you have fallen because of your sin. Take words with you, and return to the LORD. Tell him, "Forgive all our sins, and accept that which is good, and we will offer the fruit of our lips

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."

"Therefore tell the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Return, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.

"Therefore my judgment is that we do not trouble those from among the Gentiles who turn to God, but that we write to them that they abstain from the pollution of idols, from sexual immorality, from what is strangled, and from blood.

"Speak to the children of Israel: When a man or woman commits any sin that men commit, so as to trespass against the LORD, and that soul is guilty; then he shall confess his sin which he has done, and he shall make restitution for his guilt in full, and add to it the fifth part of it, and give it to him in respect of whom he has been guilty.

And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. If I have wrongfully exacted anything of anyone, I restore four times as much."

For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, "You will be saved in returning and rest. Your strength will be in quietness and in confidence." You refused,

but I prayed for you, that your faith would not fail. You, when once you have turned again, establish your brothers."

The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.

testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus.

to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'

"But if the wicked turn from all his sins that he has committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of his transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him: in his righteousness that he has done he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked?" says the Lord GOD; "and not rather that he should return from his way, and live?

From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my ordinances, and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you," says the LORD of hosts. "But you say, 'How shall we return?' Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you say, 'How have we robbed you?' In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with the curse; for you rob me, even this whole nation.read more.
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this," says the LORD of hosts, "if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough for.

but declared first to them of Damascus, at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance.

Wash yourselves, make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for the widow."

Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you, and break off your sins by righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor; if there may be a lengthening of your prosperity."

Therefore bring forth fruit worthy of repentance,

Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say among yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our father;' for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

The crowds asked him, "What then must we do?" He answered them, "He who has two coats, let him give to him who has none. He who has food, let him do likewise." Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, "Teacher, what must we do?"read more.
He said to them, "Collect no more than that which is appointed to you." Soldiers also asked him, saying, "What about us? What must we do?" He said to them, "Extort from no one by violence, neither accuse anyone wrongfully. Be content with your wages."

Yet for all this her treacherous sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense," says the LORD.

I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God; for they shall return to me with their whole heart.'

If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn't sin), and you are angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near; yet if they shall repent in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of those who carried them captive, saying, 'We have sinned, and have done perversely; we have dealt wickedly;' if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name:read more.
then hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven, your dwelling place, and maintain their cause; and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions in which they have transgressed against you; and give them compassion before those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them

"If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn't sin), and you are angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to a land far off or near; yet if they shall repent themselves in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of their captivity, saying, 'We have sinned, we have done perversely, and have dealt wickedly;' if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have carried them captive, and pray toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, and the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name:read more.
then hear from heaven, even from your dwelling place, their prayer and their petitions, and maintain their cause, and forgive your people who have sinned against you.

When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly. They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer. But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue.read more.
For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.

"Come, and let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us to pieces, and he will heal us; he has injured us, and he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, and we will live before him. Let us acknowledge the LORD. Let us press on to know the LORD. As surely as the sun rises, The LORD will appear. He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain that waters the earth."read more.
"Ephraim, what shall I do to you? Judah, what shall I do to you? For your love is like a morning cloud, and like the dew that disappears early.

It may be they will listen, and turn every man from his evil way; that I may relent of the evil which I purpose to do to them because of the evil of their doings.

The LORD repented of the evil which he said he would do to his people.

He remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.

"How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within me, my compassion is aroused.

Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to the LORD, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.

Thus the Lord GOD showed me: and behold, he formed locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and behold, it was the latter growth after the king's harvest. It happened that, when they made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, "Lord GOD, forgive, I beg you. How could Jacob stand? For he is small." The LORD relented concerning this. "It shall not be," says the LORD.read more.
Thus the Lord GOD showed me and behold, the Lord GOD called for judgment by fire; and it dried up the great deep, and would have devoured the land. Then I said, "Lord GOD, stop, I beg you. How could Jacob stand? For he is small." The LORD relented concerning this. "This also shall not be," says the Lord GOD.