³¹ For the Lord your God is ^(A)a merciful God. ^(B)He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.

⁸ It is the Lord ^(A)who goes before you. He will be with you; ^(B)he will not leave you or forsake you. ^(C)Do not fear or be dismayed.”

² And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? ^(A)That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a ^(B)gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and ^(C)relenting from disaster.

³¹ Nevertheless, ^(A)in your great mercies ^(B)you did not make an end of them or forsake them, ^(C)for you are a gracious and merciful God.

⁴² then I will ^(A)remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will ^(B)remember the land.

⁶ The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ^(A)“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and ^(B)gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast ^(C)love and faithfulness, ^7 (D)keeping steadfast love for thousands,^{[a] (E)}forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but ^(F)who will by no means clear the guilty, ^(G)visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

⁹ For ^(A)if you return to the Lord, your brothers and your children ^(B)will find compassion with their captors and return to this land. For ^(C)the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, ^(D)if you return to him.”

^6 (A)Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, ^(B)for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. ^(C)He will not leave you or forsake you.”