Malachi 3:7
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7 Ever since the days of your ancestors you have turned aside from my statutes 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?”(A)
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Zechariah 1:3
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3 Therefore say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.(A)
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Romans 10:21
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21 But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”(A)
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Deuteronomy 31:20
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20 For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I promised on oath to their ancestors, and they have eaten their fill and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, despising me and breaking my covenant.(A)
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James 4:8
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8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.(A)
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Romans 10:3
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3 Not knowing the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness.(A)
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Hosea 14:1
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A Plea for Repentance
14 Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,
for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.(A)
Jeremiah 3:12-14
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12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say:
Return, faithless Israel,
says the Lord.
I will not look on you in anger,
for I am merciful,
says the Lord;
I will not be angry forever.(A)
13 Only acknowledge your guilt,
that you have rebelled against the Lord your God
and scattered your favors among strangers under every green tree
and have not obeyed my voice,
says the Lord.(B)
14 Return, O faithless children,
says the Lord,
for I am your husband;
I will take you, one from a city and two from a family,
and I will bring you to Zion.(C)
Isaiah 55:6-7
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6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;(A)
7 let the wicked forsake their way
and the unrighteous their thoughts;
let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.(B)
Nehemiah 9:28-30
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28 But after they had rest, they again did evil before you, and you abandoned them to the hands of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them, yet when they turned and cried to you, you heard from heaven, and many times you rescued them according to your mercies. 29 And you warned them in order to turn them back to your law, yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments but sinned against your ordinances, by the observance of which a person shall live. They turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey. 30 Many years you were patient with them and warned them by your spirit through your prophets, yet they would not listen. Therefore you handed them over to the peoples of the lands.
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Leviticus 26:40-42
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40 “But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their ancestors—their treachery against me and also their continued hostility to me,(A) 41 so that I in turn was hostile to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if, then, their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity,(B) 42 then will I remember my covenant with Jacob; I will remember also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.(C)
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Luke 15:16
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16 He would gladly have filled his stomach[a] with the pods that the pigs were eating, and no one gave him anything.
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- 15.16 Other ancient authorities read filled himself
Jeremiah 3:22
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22 Return, O faithless children,
I will heal your faithlessness.
“Here we come to you,
for you are the Lord our God.(A)
Deuteronomy 4:29-31
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29 From there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul.(A) 30 In your distress, when all these things have happened to you in time to come, you will return to the Lord your God and heed him. 31 Because the Lord your God is a merciful God, he will neither abandon you nor destroy you; he will not forget the covenant with your ancestors that he swore to them.(B)
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Luke 11:48-51
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48 So you are witnesses and approve of the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. 49 For this reason the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’(A) 50 so that this generation may be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be charged against this generation.(B)
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Matthew 23:27
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27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful but inside are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of uncleanness.
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Malachi 1:6
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Corruption of the Priesthood
6 A son honors his father and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is the honor due me? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. You say, “How have we despised your name?”(A)
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Ezekiel 20:28
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28 For when I had brought them into the land that I swore to give them, then wherever they saw any high hill or any leafy tree, there they offered their sacrifices and presented the provocation of their offering; there they sent up their pleasing odors, and there they poured out their drink offerings.(A)
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Ezekiel 20:21
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21 But the children rebelled against me; they did not follow my statutes and were not careful to observe my ordinances, by whose observance everyone shall live; they profaned my Sabbaths.
Then I thought I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the wilderness.(A)
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Ezekiel 20:13
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13 But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness; they did not observe my statutes but rejected my ordinances, by whose observance everyone shall live, and my Sabbaths they greatly profaned.
Then I thought I would pour out my wrath upon them in the wilderness, to make an end of them.(A)
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Ezekiel 20:8
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8 But they rebelled against me and would not listen to me; not one of them cast away the detestable things on which their eyes feasted, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt.
Then I thought I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.(A)
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Ezekiel 18:30-32
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30 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, all of you according to your ways, says the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions; otherwise iniquity will be your ruin.[a](A) 31 Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel?(B) 32 For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God. Turn, then, and live.(C)
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- 18.30 Or so that they shall not be a stumbling block of iniquity to you
Isaiah 65:2
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2 I held out my hands all day long
to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
following their own devices;(A)
Psalm 78:8-10
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8 and that they should not be like their ancestors,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
whose spirit was not faithful to God.(A)
9 The Ephraimites, armed with[a] the bow,
turned back on the day of battle.(B)
10 They did not keep God’s covenant
and refused to walk according to his law.(C)
Footnotes
- 78.9 Heb armed with shooting
Nehemiah 9:26
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26 “Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their backs and killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies.(A)
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