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18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you,

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40 Instead, let us test and examine our ways.
    Let us turn back to the Lord.

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21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.[a]

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Footnotes

  1. 15:21 Some manuscripts add Please take me on as a hired servant.

If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

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13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’

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For I recognize my rebellion;
    it haunts me day and night.
Against you, and you alone, have I sinned;
    I have done what is evil in your sight.
You will be proved right in what you say,
    and your judgment against me is just.[a]
For I was born a sinner—
    yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.

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Footnotes

  1. 51:4 Greek version reads and you will win your case in court. Compare Rom 3:4.

Hope for Israel and Judah

“In those coming days,”
    says the Lord,
“the people of Israel will return home
    together with the people of Judah.
They will come weeping
    and seeking the Lord their God.
They will ask the way to Jerusalem[a]
    and will start back home again.
They will bind themselves to the Lord
    with an eternal covenant that will never be forgotten.

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Footnotes

  1. 50:5 Hebrew Zion; also in 50:28.

14 “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.

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“For this reason I will fence her in with thornbushes.
    I will block her path with a wall
    to make her lose her way.
When she runs after her lovers,
    she won’t be able to catch them.
She will search for them
    but not find them.
Then she will think,
‘I might as well return to my husband,
    for I was better off with him than I am now.’

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19 “I thought to myself,
    ‘I would love to treat you as my own children!’
I wanted nothing more than to give you this beautiful land—
    the finest possession in the world.
I looked forward to your calling me ‘Father,’
    and I wanted you never to turn from me.

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When I refused to confess my sin,
    my body wasted away,
    and I groaned all day long.
Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.
    My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Interlude

Finally, I confessed all my sins to you
    and stopped trying to hide my guilt.
I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.”
    And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone. Interlude

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11 For the honor of your name, O Lord,
    forgive my many, many sins.

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Pray like this:

Our Father in heaven,
    may your name be kept holy.

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And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River.

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20 “Is not Israel still my son,
    my darling child?” says the Lord.
“I often have to punish him,
    but I still love him.
That’s why I long for him
    and surely will have mercy on him.

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16 Surely you are still our Father!
    Even if Abraham and Jacob[a] would disown us,
Lord, you would still be our Father.
    You are our Redeemer from ages past.

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Footnotes

  1. 63:16 Hebrew Israel. See note on 14:1.

13 Don’t fail to discipline your children.
    The rod of punishment won’t kill them.

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27 He will declare to his friends,
‘I sinned and twisted the truth,
    but it was not worth it.[a]
28 God rescued me from the grave,
    and now my life is filled with light.’

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Footnotes

  1. 33:27 Greek version reads but he [God] did not punish me as my sin deserved.

Healing for the Repentant

14 [a]Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,
    for your sins have brought you down.
Bring your confessions, and return to the Lord.
    Say to him,
“Forgive all our sins and graciously receive us,
    so that we may offer you our praises.[b]
Assyria cannot save us,
    nor can our warhorses.
Never again will we say to the idols we have made,
    ‘You are our gods.’
No, in you alone
    do the orphans find mercy.”

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Footnotes

  1. 14:1 Verses 14:1-9 are numbered 14:2-10 in Hebrew text.
  2. 14:2 As in Greek and Syriac versions, which read may repay the fruit of our lips; Hebrew reads may repay the bulls of our lips.

The day will come when watchmen will shout
    from the hill country of Ephraim,
‘Come, let us go up to Jerusalem[a]
    to worship the Lord our God.’”

Now this is what the Lord says:
“Sing with joy for Israel.[b]
    Shout for the greatest of nations!
Shout out with praise and joy:
‘Save your people, O Lord,
    the remnant of Israel!’
For I will bring them from the north
    and from the distant corners of the earth.
I will not forget the blind and lame,
    the expectant mothers and women in labor.
    A great company will return!
Tears of joy will stream down their faces,
    and I will lead them home with great care.
They will walk beside quiet streams
    and on smooth paths where they will not stumble.
For I am Israel’s father,
    and Ephraim is my oldest child.

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Footnotes

  1. 31:6 Hebrew Zion; also in 31:12.
  2. 31:7 Hebrew Jacob; also in 31:11. See note on 5:20.

Death wrapped its ropes around me;
    the terrors of the grave[a] overtook me.
    I saw only trouble and sorrow.
Then I called on the name of the Lord:
    “Please, Lord, save me!”
How kind the Lord is! How good he is!
    So merciful, this God of ours!
The Lord protects those of childlike faith;
    I was facing death, and he saved me.
Let my soul be at rest again,
    for the Lord has been good to me.

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Footnotes

  1. 116:3 Hebrew of Sheol.

If they are bound in chains
    and caught up in a web of trouble,
he shows them the reason.
    He shows them their sins of pride.
10 He gets their attention
    and commands that they turn from evil.

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19 Manasseh’s prayer, the account of the way God answered him, and an account of all his sins and unfaithfulness are recorded in The Record of the Seers.[a] It includes a list of the locations where he built pagan shrines and set up Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself and repented.

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Footnotes

  1. 33:19 Or The Record of Hozai.

12 But while in deep distress, Manasseh sought the Lord his God and sincerely humbled himself before the God of his ancestors. 13 And when he prayed, the Lord listened to him and was moved by his request. So the Lord brought Manasseh back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh finally realized that the Lord alone is God!

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Outcasts Visit the Enemy Camp

Now there were four men with leprosy[a] sitting at the entrance of the city gates. “Why should we sit here waiting to die?” they asked each other. “We will starve if we stay here, but with the famine in the city, we will starve if we go back there. So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army. If they let us live, so much the better. But if they kill us, we would have died anyway.”

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Footnotes

  1. 7:3 Or with a contagious skin disease. The Hebrew word used here and throughout this passage can describe various skin diseases.

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