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68 Bible verses about Israel
I want to share something powerful with you. God has offered divine forgiveness to Israel. He's redeemed them, forgiven them. Think about that – innocent blood, forgiven. It’s a reminder of the incredible grace available to all of us.
God has exalted Jesus as Prince and Savior, offering repentance and forgiveness of sins. This is a gift, not just for Israel, but for everyone who believes. I encourage you to pray for Israel's salvation. Blessing this holy nation brings blessings in return. God’s grace and favor will become evident in your life when you hold His chosen people close to your heart. They are precious in His sight.
Remember this: never curse Israel. Speaking against them invites judgment and can bring real hardship into your life. Instead, let's lift them up in prayer and show the same love and forgiveness that God has shown us.
The Lord has chosen the people of Jacob for himself; he has chosen the people of Israel for his very own.
The Lord says, “People of Israel, you are my servants. People of Jacob, I chose you. You are from the family of my friend Abraham.I took you from places far away on the earth and called you from a faraway country. I said, ‘You are my servants.’ I have chosen you and have not turned against you.
Listen, people of Israel! The Lord our God is the only Lord.Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.
Then Joshua said, “Now throw away the gods that you have. Love the Lord, the God of Israel, with all your heart.”
Lord, remove this sin from your people Israel, whom you have saved. Don’t blame your people, the Israelites, for the murder of this innocent person.” And so the murder will be paid for.
Go and speak this message toward the north: ‘Come back, unfaithful people of Israel,’ says the Lord. ‘I will stop being angry at you, because I am full of mercy,’ says the Lord. ‘I will not be angry with you forever.
Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob. Your name will now be Israel, because you have wrestled with God and with people, and you have won.”
The Lord says, “You are my witnesses and the servant I chose. I chose you so you would know and believe me, so you would understand that I am the true God. There was no God before me, and there will be no God after me.
The Lord says, “People of Jacob, you are my servants. Listen to me! People of Israel, I chose you.”Who made these gods? Who made these useless idols?The workmen who made them will be ashamed, because they are only human. If they all would come together, they would all be ashamed and afraid.One workman uses tools to heat iron, and he works over hot coals. With his hammer he beats the metal and makes a statue, using his powerful arms. But when he becomes hungry, he loses his power. If he does not drink water, he becomes tired.Another workman uses a line and a compass to draw on the wood. Then he uses his chisels to cut a statue and his calipers to measure the statue. In this way, the workman makes the wood look exactly like a person, and this statue of a person sits in the house.He cuts down cedars or cypress or oak trees. Those trees grew by their own power in the forest. Or he plants a pine tree, and the rain makes it grow.Then he burns the tree. He uses some of the wood for a fire to keep himself warm. He also starts a fire to bake his bread. But he uses part of the wood to make a god, and then he worships it! He makes the idol and bows down to it!The man burns half of the wood in the fire. He uses the fire to cook his meat, and he eats the meat until he is full. He also burns the wood to keep himself warm. He says, “Good! Now I am warm. I can see because of the fire’s light.”But he makes a statue from the wood that is left and calls it his god. He bows down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “You are my god. Save me!”Those people don’t know what they are doing. They don’t understand! It is as if their eyes are covered so they can’t see. Their minds don’t understand.They have not thought about these things; they don’t understand. They have never thought to themselves, “I burned half of the wood in the fire and used the hot coals to bake my bread. I cooked and ate my meat. And I used the wood that was left to make this hateful thing. I am worshiping a block of wood!”This is what the Lord says, who made you, who formed you in your mother’s body, who will help you: “People of Jacob, my servants, don’t be afraid. Israel, I chose you.
I do these things for my servants, the people of Jacob, and for my chosen people, the Israelites. Cyrus, I call you by name, and I give you a title of honor even though you don’t know me.
So now if you obey me and keep my agreement, you will be my own possession, chosen from all nations. Even though the whole earth is mine,you will be my kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ You must tell the Israelites these words.”
Now, Israel, this is what the Lord your God wants you to do: Respect the Lord your God, and do what he has told you to do. Love him. Serve the Lord your God with your whole being,and obey the Lord’s commands and laws that I am giving you today for your own good.
You are holy people who belong to the Lord your God. He has chosen you from all the people on earth to be his very own.
‘Every one of you has seen what I did to the people of Egypt. You saw how I carried you out of Egypt, as if on eagle’s wings. And I brought you here to me.So now if you obey me and keep my agreement, you will be my own possession, chosen from all nations. Even though the whole earth is mine,you will be my kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ You must tell the Israelites these words.”
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are too small to be among the army groups from Judah, from you will come one who will rule Israel for me. He comes from very old times, from days long ago.”
I will make you my own people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am the Lord your God, the One who saves you from the hard work the Egyptians force you to do.
Jesus is the One whom God raised to be on his right side, as Leader and Savior. Through him, all people could change their hearts and lives and have their sins forgiven.
“Look, the time is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel and the people of Judah.It will not be like the agreement I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt. I was a husband to them, but they broke that agreement,” says the Lord.“This is the agreement I will make with the people of Israel at that time,” says the Lord: “I will put my teachings in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.People will no longer have to teach their neighbors and relatives to know the Lord, because all people will know me, from the least to the most important,” says the Lord. “I will forgive them for the wicked things they did, and I will not remember their sins anymore.”
They sinned against me, but I will wash away that sin. They did evil and turned away from me, but I will forgive them.
Still God was merciful. He forgave their sins and did not destroy them. Many times he held back his anger and did not stir up all his anger.
“I have chosen only you out of all the families of the earth, so I will punish you for all your sins.”
People will no longer have to teach their neighbors and relatives to know the Lord, because all people will know me, from the least to the most important,” says the Lord. “I will forgive them for the wicked things they did, and I will not remember their sins anymore.”
No other nation is as great as we are. Their gods do not come near them, but the Lord our God comes near when we pray to him.
Now this is what the Lord says. He created you, people of Jacob; he formed you, people of Israel. He says, “Don’t be afraid, because I have saved you. I have called you by name, and you are mine.
This is what the Lord All-Powerful says: “After he has honored me and sent me against the nations who took your possessions—because whoever touches you hurts what is precious to me—
Then if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, if they will pray and seek me and stop their evil ways, I will hear them from heaven. I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land.
“Jerusalem, get up and shine, because your light has come, and the glory of the Lord shines on you.“Jerusalem, foreigners will rebuild your walls, and their kings will serve you. When I was angry, I hurt you, but now I want to be kind to you and comfort you.Your gates will always be open; they will not be closed day or night so the nations can bring their wealth to you, and their kings will be led to you.The nation or kingdom that doesn’t serve you will be destroyed; it will be completely ruined.“The great trees of Lebanon will be given to you: its pine, fir, and cypress trees together. You will use them to make my Temple beautiful, and I will give much honor to this place where I rest my feet.The people who have hurt you will bow down to you; those who hated you will bow down at your feet. They will call you The City of the Lord, Jerusalem, city of the Holy One of Israel.“You have been hated and left empty with no one passing through. But I will make you great from now on; you will be a place of happiness forever and ever.You will be given what you need from the nations, like a child drinking milk from its mother. Then you will know that it is I, the Lord, who saves you. You will know that the Powerful One of Jacob protects you.I will bring you gold in place of bronze, silver in place of iron, bronze in place of wood, iron in place of rocks. I will change your punishment into peace, and you will be ruled by what is right.There will be no more violence in your country; it will not be ruined or destroyed. You will name your walls Salvation and your gates Praise.The sun will no longer be your light during the day nor will the brightness from the moon be your light, because the Lord will be your light forever, and your God will be your glory.Darkness now covers the earth; deep darkness covers her people. But the Lord shines on you, and people see his glory around you.Your sun will never set again, and your moon will never be dark, because the Lord will be your light forever, and your time of sadness will end.All of your people will do what is right. They will receive the earth forever. They are the plant I have planted, the work of my own hands to show my greatness.The smallest family will grow to a thousand. The least important of you will become a powerful nation. I am the Lord, and when it is time, I will make these things happen quickly.”Nations will come to your light; kings will come to the brightness of your sunrise.
The days will come when I will bring Israel and Judah back from captivity,” says the Lord. “I will return them to the land I gave their ancestors, and they will own it!” says the Lord.
“ ‘I will take you from the nations and gather you out of all the lands and bring you back into your own land.Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness and your idols.Also, I will teach you to respect me completely, and I will put a new way of thinking inside you. I will take out the stubborn hearts of stone from your bodies, and I will give you obedient hearts of flesh.I will put my Spirit inside you and help you live by my rules and carefully obey my laws.You will live in the land I gave to your ancestors, and you will be my people, and I will be your God.
Be strong and brave. Don’t be afraid of them and don’t be frightened, because the Lord your God will go with you. He will not leave you or forget you.”
Now he told me, “You are an important servant to me to bring back the tribes of Jacob, to bring back the people of Israel who are left alive. But, more importantly, I will make you a light for all nations to show people all over the world the way to be saved.”
So I ask: Did God throw out his people? No! I myself am an Israelite from the family of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.Let their eyes be closed so they cannot see and their backs be forever weak from troubles.”So I ask: When the Jews fell, did that fall destroy them? No! But their failure brought salvation to those who are not Jews, in order to make the Jews jealous.The Jews’ failure brought rich blessings for the world, and the Jews’ loss brought rich blessings for the non-Jewish people. So surely the world will receive much richer blessings when enough Jews become the kind of people God wants.Now I am speaking to you who are not Jews. I am an apostle to those who are not Jews, and since I have that work, I will make the most of it.I hope I can make my own people jealous and, in that way, help some of them to be saved.When God turned away from the Jews, he became friends with other people in the world. So when God accepts the Jews, surely that will bring them life after death.If the first piece of bread is offered to God, then the whole loaf is made holy. If the roots of a tree are holy, then the tree’s branches are holy too.It is as if some of the branches from an olive tree have been broken off. You non-Jewish people are like the branch of a wild olive tree that has been joined to that first tree. You now share the strength and life of the first tree, the Jews.So do not brag about those branches that were broken off. If you brag, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.You will say, “Branches were broken off so that I could be joined to their tree.”God chose the Israelites to be his people before they were born, and he has not thrown his people out. Surely you know what the Scripture says about Elijah, how he prayed to God against the people of Israel.
The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land I will show you.At this time there was not much food in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to live because there was so little food.Just before they arrived in Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know you are a very beautiful woman.When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This woman is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but let you live.Tell them you are my sister so that things will go well with me and I may be allowed to live because of you.”When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was very beautiful.The Egyptian officers saw her and told the king of Egypt how beautiful she was. They took her to the king’s palace, andthe king was kind to Abram because he thought Abram was her brother. He gave Abram sheep, cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.But the Lord sent terrible diseases on the king and all the people in his house because of Abram’s wife Sarai.So the king sent for Abram and said, “What have you done to me? Why didn’t you tell me Sarai was your wife?Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’ so that I made her my wife? Now, here is your wife. Take her and leave!”I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.Then the king commanded his men to make Abram leave Egypt; so Abram and his wife left with everything they owned.I will bless those who bless you, and I will place a curse on those who harm you. And all the people on earth will be blessed through you.”
Say to the people, ‘This is what the Lord God says: I am going to take the people of Israel from among the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them into their own land.I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. One king will rule all of them. They will never again be two nations; they will not be divided into two kingdoms anymore.
In those days the family of Judah will join the family of Israel. They will come together from a land in the north to the land I gave their ancestors.
Because I love Jerusalem, I will continue to speak for her; for Jerusalem’s sake I will not stop speaking until her goodness shines like a bright light, until her salvation burns bright like a flame.
“I will make new heavens and the new earth, which will last forever,” says the Lord. “In the same way, your names and your children will always be with me.
Your God says, “Comfort, comfort my people.Look, the Lord God is coming with power to rule all the people. Look, he will bring reward for his people; he will have their payment with him.He takes care of his people like a shepherd. He gathers them like lambs in his arms and carries them close to him. He gently leads the mothers of the lambs.Who has measured the oceans in the palm of his hand? Who has used his hand to measure the sky? Who has used a bowl to measure all the dust of the earth and scales to weigh the mountains and hills?Who has known the mind of the Lord or been able to give him advice?Whom did he ask for help? Who taught him the right way? Who taught him knowledge and showed him the way to understanding?The nations are like one small drop in a bucket; they are no more than the dust on his measuring scales. To him the islands are no more than fine dust on his scales.All the trees in Lebanon are not enough for the altar fires, and all the animals in Lebanon are not enough for burnt offerings.Compared to the Lord all the nations are worth nothing; to him they are less than nothing.Can you compare God to anything? Can you compare him to an image of anything?An idol is formed by a craftsman, and a goldsmith covers it with gold and makes silver chains for it.Speak kindly to the people of Jerusalem and tell them that their time of service is finished, that they have paid for their sins, that the Lord has punished Jerusalem twice for every sin they did.”
Those who trust the Lord are like Mount Zion, which sits unmoved forever.As the mountains surround Jerusalem, the Lord surrounds his people now and forever.
The Lord will roar like a lion from Jerusalem; his loud voice will thunder from that city, and the sky and the earth will shake. But the Lord will be a safe place for his people, a strong place of safety for the people of Israel.
“ ‘But then I will bring health and healing to the people there. I will heal them and let them enjoy great peace and safety.
Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them. The nation of Israel will know that they are my people, says the Lord God.
Many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the Temple of the God of Jacob, so that he can teach us his ways, and we can obey his teachings.” His teachings will go out from Jerusalem, the word of the Lord from that city.
The God who made you is like your husband. His name is the Lord All-Powerful. The Holy One of Israel is the one who saves you. He is called the God of all the earth.
It is a land the Lord your God cares for. His eyes are on it continually, and he watches it from the beginning of the year to the end.
People of Israel, put your hope in the Lord because he is loving and able to save.He will save Israel from all their sins.
They are the people of Israel, God’s chosen children. They have seen the glory of God, and they have the agreements that God made between himself and his people. God gave them the law of Moses and the right way of worship and his promises.They are the descendants of our great ancestors, and they are the earthly family into which Christ was born, who is God over all. Praise him forever! Amen.
“Nations, listen to the message from the Lord. Tell this message in the faraway lands by the sea: ‘The one who scattered the people of Israel will bring them back, and he will watch over his people like a shepherd.’
“So say: ‘This is what the Lord God says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you together from the countries where you have been scattered. Then I will give you back the land of Israel.’
This is what the Lord All-Powerful says: “I will save my people from countries in the east and west.I will bring them back, and they will live in Jerusalem. They will be my people, and I will be their good and loyal God.”
But Israel will be saved by the Lord, and that salvation will continue forever. Never again will Israel be put to shame.
He has remembered his love and his loyalty to the people of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen God’s power to save.
There is no nation like your people Israel. They are the only people on earth that God chose to be his own. You made your name well known. You did great and wonderful miracles for them. You went ahead of them and forced other nations and their gods out of the land. You freed your people from slavery in Egypt.You made the people of Israel your very own people forever, and, Lord, you are their God.
Then Moses went up on the mountain to God. The Lord called to him from the mountain and said, “Say this to the family of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel:‘Every one of you has seen what I did to the people of Egypt. You saw how I carried you out of Egypt, as if on eagle’s wings. And I brought you here to me.So now if you obey me and keep my agreement, you will be my own possession, chosen from all nations. Even though the whole earth is mine,you will be my kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ You must tell the Israelites these words.”
The Lord will show mercy to the people of Jacob, and he will again choose the people of Israel. He will settle them in their own land. Then non-Israelite people will join the Israelites and will become a part of the family of Jacob.
I will bring back your health and heal your injuries,” says the Lord, “because other people forced you away. They said about you, ‘No one cares about Jerusalem!’ ”
And from far away the Lord appeared to his people and said, “I love you people with a love that will last forever. That is why I have continued showing you kindness.