17 *Then Jesus started preaching, "Turn back to God! The kingdom of heaven will soon be here."*

8 Do something to show you have really given up your sins.

13 *Go and learn what the Scriptures mean when they say, ‘Instead of offering sacrifices to me, I want you to be merciful to others.’ I didn’t come to invite good people to be my followers. I came to invite sinners."

15 *He said, "The time has come! God’s kingdom will soon be here.* Turn back to God and believe the good news!"

3 Not at all! But you can be sure that if you don’t turn back to God, every one of you will also be killed.

32 I didn’t come to invite good people to turn to God. I came to invite sinners."

38 Peter said to them, "Turn to God 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.

19 So turn to God! Give up your sins, and you will be forgiven.

30 In the past, God forgave all this because people did not know what they were doing. But now he says that everyone everywhere must turn to him.

19 *I correct and punish everyone I love. So make up your minds to turn away from your sins.

9 The Lord isn’t slow about keeping his promises, as some people think he is. In fact, God is patient, because he wants everyone to turn from sin and no one to be lost.

32 *I, the Lord God, don’t want to see that happen to anyone. So stop sinning and live!

14 If my own people will humbly pray and turn back to me and stop sinning, then I will answer them from heaven. I will forgive them and make their land fertile once again.

1-4 * Passover wasn’t celebrated in the first month,* which was the usual time, because many of the priests were still unclean and unacceptable to serve, and because not everyone in Judah had come to Jerusalem for the festival. So Hezekiah, his officials, and the people agreed to celebrate Passover in the second month.*

Hezekiah sent a message to everyone in Israel and Judah, including those in the territories of Ephraim and West Manasseh, inviting them to the temple in Jerusalem for the celebration of Passover in honor of the Lord God of Israel. 5 Everyone from Beersheba in the south to Dan in the north was invited. This was the largest crowd of people that had ever celebrated Passover, according to the official records.

6 Hezekiah’s messengers went everywhere in Israel and Judah with the following letter:

People of Israel, now that you have survived the invasion of the Assyrian kings,* it’s time for you to turn back to the Lord God our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob worshiped. If you do this, he will stop being angry. 7 Don’t follow the example of your ancestors and your Israelite relatives in the north. They were unfaithful to the Lord, and he punished them horribly. 8 Don’t be stubborn like your ancestors. Decide now to obey the Lord our God! Come to Jerusalem and worship him in the temple that will belong to him forever. Then he will stop being angry, 9 and the enemies that have captured your families will show pity and send them back home. The Lord God is kind and merciful, and if you turn back to him, he will no longer turn his back on you.

10 The messengers went to every town in Ephraim and West Manasseh as far north as the territory of Zebulun, but people laughed and insulted them. 11 Only a few people from the tribes of Asher, West Manasseh, and Zebulun were humble and went to Jerusalem. 12 God also made everyone in Judah eager to do what Hezekiah and his officials had commanded.

13 In the second month,* a large crowd of people gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Festival of Thin Bread.*14 They took all the foreign altars and incense altars in Jerusalem and threw them into Kidron Valley.

15-17 Then, on the fourteenth day of that same month, the Levites began killing the lambs for Passover, because many of the worshipers were unclean and were not allowed to kill their own lambs. Meanwhile, some of the priests and Levites felt ashamed because they had not gone through the ceremony to make themselves clean. They immediately went through that ceremony and went to the temple, where they offered sacrifices to please the Lord.* Then the priests and Levites took their positions, according to the Law of Moses, the servant of God.

As the Levites killed the lambs, they handed some of the blood to the priests, who splattered it on the altar.

18,19 Most of the people that came from Ephraim, West Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun had not made themselves clean, but they ignored God’s Law and ate the Passover lambs anyway. Hezekiah found out what they had done and prayed, "Lord God, these people are unclean according to the laws of holiness. But they are worshiping you, just as their ancestors did. So, please be kind and forgive them." 20 The Lord answered Hezekiah’s prayer and did not punish them.

21 The worshipers in Jerusalem were very happy and celebrated the Festival for seven days. The Levites and priests sang praises to the Lord every day and played their instruments. 22 Hezekiah thanked the Levites for doing such a good job, leading the celebration.

The worshipers celebrated for seven days by offering sacrifices, by eating the sacred meals, and by praising the Lord God of their ancestors. 23 Everyone was so excited that they agreed to celebrate seven more days.

24 So Hezekiah gave the people 1,000 bulls and 7,000 sheep to be offered as sacrifices and to be used as food for the sacred meals. His officials gave 1,000 bulls and 10,000 sheep, and many more priests agreed to go through the ceremony to make themselves clean. 25 Everyone was very happy, including those from Judah and Israel, the priests and Levites, and the foreigners living in Judah and Israel. 26 It was the biggest celebration in Jerusalem since the days of King Solomon, the son of David. 27 The priests and Levites asked God to bless the people, and from his home in heaven, he did.

13 Don’t rip your clothes

to show your sorrow.

Instead, turn back to me

with broken hearts.

I am merciful, kind, and caring.

I don’t easily lose my temper,

and I don’t like to punish.

1 * I am the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah and the grandson of Iddo.

In the eighth month of the second year that Darius was king of Persia,* the Lord told me to say:

2,3 Israel, I, the Lord All-Powerful, was very angry with your ancestors. But if you people will return to me, I will turn and help you. 4 Don’t be stubborn like your ancestors. They were warned by the earlier prophets* to give up their evil and turn back to me, but they paid no attention.

5 Where are your ancestors now? Not even prophets live forever. 6 But my warnings and my words spoken by the prophets caught up with your ancestors. So they turned back to me and said, "Lord All-Powerful, you have punished us for our sins, just as you had planned."

7,8 * On the twenty-fourth day of Shebat,* which was the eleventh month of that same year,* the Lord spoke to me in a vision during the night: In a valley among myrtle trees,* I saw someone on a red horse, with riders on red, brown, and white horses behind him. 9 An angel was there to explain things to me, and I asked, "Sir, who are these riders?"

"I’ll tell you," the angel answered.

10 At once, the man standing among the myrtle trees said, "These are the ones the Lord has sent to find out what’s happening on earth."

11 Then the riders spoke to the Lord's angel, who was standing among the myrtle trees, and they said, "We have gone everywhere and have discovered that the whole world is at peace."

12 At this, the angel said, "Lord All-Powerful, for 70 years you have been angry with Jerusalem and the towns of Judah. When are you ever going to have mercy on them?"

13 The Lord's answer was kind and comforting. 14 So the angel told me to announce:

I, the Lord All-Powerful, am very protective of Jerusalem. 15 For a while I was angry at the nations, but now I am furious, because they have made things worse for Jerusalem and are not the least bit concerned. 16 And so, I will have pity on Jerusalem. The city will be completely rebuilt, and my temple will stand again. 17 I also promise that my towns will prosper—Jerusalem will once again be my chosen city, and I will comfort the people of Zion.

18 Next, I saw four animal horns.*19-21 The angel who was sent to explain was there, and so I asked, "What do these mean?"

His answer was, "These horns are the nations that scattered the people of Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem, and took away their freedom."

Then the Lord showed me four blacksmiths, and I asked, "What are they going to do?"

He replied, "They are going to terrify and crush those horns."

13 If you don’t confess your sins,

you will be a failure.

But God will be merciful

if you confess your sins

and give them up.

23 Listen as I correct you

and tell you what I think.

9 But if we confess our sins to God, he can always be trusted to forgive us and take our sins away.

7 Jesus said, "In the same way there is more happiness in heaven because of one sinner who turns to God than over 99 good people who don’t need to."

10 Jesus said, "In the same way God’s angels are happy when even one person turns to him."

8 Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Clean up your lives, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you people who can’t make up your mind.