Misericórdia

18 Who is a God like thee, cancelling iniquities, and passing over the sins of the remnant of his inheritance? and he has not kept his anger for a testimony, for he delights in mercy.

1 For the end, a Psalm of *instruction by David, 2 when Doec the Idumean came and told Saul, and said to him, David is gone to the house of Abimelech.

6 I will wash my hands in *innocency, and compass thine altar, O Lord: 7 to hear the voice of praise, and to declare all thy wonderful works.

1 *A Song of Degrees.

O Lord, my heart is not exalted, neither have mine eyes been haughtily raised: neither have I exercised myself in great matters, nor in things too wonderful for me. 2 I shall have sinned if I have not been humble, but have exalted my soul: according to the relation of a weaned child to his mother, so wilt thou recompense my soul.

11 But thou, O Lord, have compassion upon me, and raise me up, and I shall requite them.

6 This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek the face of the God of Jacob. Pause.

13 He waters the mountains from his chambers: the earth shall be satisfied with the fruit of thy works.

13 He that covers his own ungodliness shall not prosper: but he that blames himself shall be loved.

7 let the ungodly leave his ways, and the transgressor his counsels: and let him return to the Lord, and he shall find mercy; for he shall abundantly pardon your sins.

18 And the Lord will again wait, that he may pity you, and will therefore be exalted that he may have mercy upon you: because the Lord your God is a judge: blessed are they that *stay themselves upon him.

5 Who is as the Lord our God? who dwells in the high places,

1 And Ezekias sent to all Israel and Juda, and wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasse, that they should come into the house of the Lord to Jerusalem, to keep the passover to the Lord God of Israel. 2 For the king, and the princes, and all the congregation in Jerusalem, designed to keep the passover in the second month. 3 For they could not keep it at that time, because a sufficient number of priests had not purified themselves, and the people was not gathered to Jerusalem. 4 And the proposal pleased the king and the congregation. 5 And they established a decree that a proclamation should go through all Israel, from Bersabee to Dan, that they should come and keep the passover to the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem: for the multitude had not done it lately according to the scripture.

6 And the posts went with the letters from the king and the princes to all Israel and Juda, according to the command of the king, saying, Children of Israel, return to the Lord God of Abraam, and Isaac, and Israel, and bring back them that have escaped even those that were left of the hand of the king of Assyria. 7 And be not as your fathers, and your brethren, who revolted from the Lord God of their fathers, and he gave them up to desolation, as ye see. 8 And now harden not your hearts, as your fathers did: give glory to the Lord God, and enter into his sanctuary, which he has sanctified for ever: and serve the Lord your God, and he shall turn away his fierce anger from you. 9 For when ye turn to the Lord, your brethren and your children shall be pitied before all that have carried them captives, and he will restore you to this land: for the Lord our God is merciful and pitiful, and will not turn away his face from you, if we return to him.

10 So the posts went through from city to city in mount Ephraim, and Manasse, and as far as Zabulon: and they as it were laughed them to scorn, and mocked them. 11 But the men of Aser, and some of Manasses and of Zabulon, were ashamed, and came to Jerusalem and Juda. 12 And the hand of the Lord was present to give them one heart to come, to do according to the commands of the king and of the princes, by the word of the Lord.

13 And a great multitude were gathered to Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month, a very great congregation. 14 And they arose, and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all on which they burnt incense to false gods they tore down and cast into the brook Kedron. 15 Then they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the second month: and the priests and the Levites repented, and purified themselves, and brought whole-burnt-offerings into the house of the Lord.

16 And they stood at their post, according to their ordinance, according to the commandment of Moses the man of God: and the priests received the blood from the hand of the Levites. 17 For a great part of the congregation was not sanctified; and the Levites were ready to kill the passover for every one who could not sanctify himself to the Lord. 18 For the greatest part of the people of Ephraim, and Manasse, and Issachar, and Zabulon, had not purified themselves, but ate the passover contrary to the scripture. On this account also Ezekias prayed concerning them, saying, 19 The good Lord be merciful with regard to every heart that sincerely seeks the Lord God of their fathers, and is not purified according to the purification of the sanctuary. 20 And the Lord hearkened to Ezekias, and healed the people.

21 And the children of Israel who were present in Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great joy; and they continued to sing hymns to the Lord daily, and the priests and the Levites played on instruments to the Lord. 22 And Ezekias encouraged all the Levites, and those that had good understanding of the Lord: and they completely kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days, offering peace-offerings, and confessing to the Lord God of their fathers.

23 And the congregation purposed together to keep other seven days: and they kept seven days with gladness. 24 For Ezekias set apart for Juda, even for the congregation, a thousand calves and seven thousand sheep; and the princes set apart for the people a thousand calves and ten thousand sheep: and the holy things of the priests abundantly. 25 And all the congregation, the priests and the Levites, rejoiced, and all the congregation of Juda, and they that were present of Jerusalem, and the strangers that came from the land of Israel, and the dwellers in Juda. 26 And there was great joy in Jerusalem: from the days of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was not such a feast in Jerusalem. 27 Then the priests the Levites rose up and blessed the people: and their voice was heard, and their prayer came into his holy dwelling-place, even into heaven.

1 If a man put away his wife, and she depart from him, and become another man’s, shall she return to him any more at all? shall not that woman be utterly defiled? yet thou hast gone a-whoring with many shepherds, and hast returned to me, saith the Lord. 2 Lift up thine eyes to look straight forward, and see where thou hast not been utterly defiled. Thou hast sat for them by the wayside as a deserted crow, and hast defiled the land with thy fornications and thy wickedness. 3 And thou didst retain many shepherds for a stumbling-block to thyself: thou hadst a whore’s face, thou didst become shameless toward all.

4 Hast thou not called me as it were a home, and the father and guide of thy virgin-time? 5 Will God’s anger continue for ever, or be preserved to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done these bad things, and hadst power to do them.

6 And the Lord said to me in the days of Josias the king, Hast thou seen what things the house of Israel has done to me? they have gone on every high mountain, and under every shady tree, and have committed fornication there. 7 And I said after she had committed all these acts of fornication, Turn again to me. Yet she returned not. And faithless Juda saw her faithlessness. 8 And I saw that (for all the sins of which she was convicted, wherein the house of Israel committed adultery, and I put her away, and gave into her hands a bill of divorcement,) yet faithless Juda feared not, but went and herself also committed fornication. 9 And her fornication was nothing accounted of; and she committed adultery with wood and stone. 10 And for all these things faithless Juda turned not to me with all her heart, but falsely.

11 And the Lord said to me, Israel has justified himself more than faithless Juda. 12 Go and read these words toward the north, and thou shalt say, Return to me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not set my face against you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not be angry with you for ever. 13 Nevertheless, know thine iniquity, that thou hast sinned against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to strangers under every shady tree, but thou didst not hearken to my voice, saith the Lord. 14 Turn, ye children that have revolted, saith the Lord; for I will rule over you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you in to Sion: 15 and I will give you shepherds after my heart, and they shall certainly tend you with knowledge.

16 And it shall come to pass that when ye are multiplied and increased upon the land, saith the Lord, in those days they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Holy One of Israel: it shall not come to mind; it shall not be named; neither shall it be visited; nor shall this be done any more. 17 In those days and at that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered to it: and they shall not walk any more after the imaginations of their evil heart.

18 In those days the house of Juda shall come together to the house of Israel, and they shall come, together, from the land of the north, and from all the countries, to the land, which I caused their fathers to inherit. 19 And I said, So be it, Lord, for thou saidst, I will set thee among children, and will give thee a choice land, the inheritance of the Almighty God of the Gentiles: and I said, Ye shall call me Father; and ye shall not turn away from me. 20 But as a wife acts treacherously against her husband, so has the house of Israel dealt treacherously against me, saith the Lord.

21 A voice from the lips was heard, even of weeping and supplication of the children of Israel: for they have dealt unrighteously in their ways, they have forgotten God their Holy One. 22 Turn, ye children that are given to turning, and I will heal your bruises.

Behold, we will be thy servants; for thou art the Lord our God. 23 Truly the hills and the strength of the mountains were a lying refuge: but by the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. 24 But shame has consumed the labours of our fathers from our youth; their sheep and their calves, and their sons and their daughters. 25 We have lain down in our shame, and our disgrace has covered us: because we and our fathers have sinned before our God, from our youth until this day; and we have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord our God.