But if they think again in their land of captivity and repent and plead for mercy from you, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly,’
Then the Spirit of God came to Zechariah, son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood before the people and told them, “This is what God says: ‘Why do you break the Lord's commandments so that you cannot be successful? Since you have abandoned the Lord, he has abandoned you.’”
Through force and a death sentence he was killed—who cared what happened to him? He was executed, removed from the land of the living; he was killed because of my people's wickedness.
The whole of Israel has broken your law and turned away from you, not listening to what you had to say. That's why the condemnation that comes from our broken promise has been poured out on us—because of our sin, as made clear in the Law of Moses, the servant of the Lord.
They have to be expelled, because they have treated the word of the Lord with contempt and broken his commandment. They are responsible for the consequences of their own guilt.’”
So whoever disregards the least important commandment, and teaches people to do so, will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever practices and teaches the commandments will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Paul said to him, “God will hit you, you whitewashed wall! You're sitting there to judge me according to the law, and yet you order me to be hit in contravention of the law!”
I'm afraid that when I visit, my God will humble me in your presence, and that I will be weeping over many of those who have sinned previously, and who still have not repented of impurity, sexual immorality, and indecent acts that they committed.
“I have sinned,” Saul confessed to Samuel. “I disobeyed the Lord's orders and your instructions, because I was afraid of the people and followed what they said.
