Nevertheless my eye spared them, and I didn’t destroy them. I didn’t make a full end of them in the wilderness.
Nevertheless I withdrew my hand, and worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out.
You will know that I am Yahweh, when I have dealt with you for my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, you house of Israel,” says the Lord Yahweh.’”
Tell them, ‘“As I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why will you die, house of Israel?”’
Again, when I say to the wicked, “You will surely die;” if he turns from his sin, and does that which is lawful and right;
You haven’t strengthened the diseased. You haven’t healed that which was sick. You haven’t bound up that which was broken. You haven’t brought back that which was driven away. You haven’t sought that which was lost, but you have ruled over them with force and with rigor.
“‘For thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Behold, I myself, even I, will search for my sheep, and will seek them out.
As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered abroad, so will I seek out my sheep. I will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will cause them to lie down,” says the Lord Yahweh.
“I will seek that which was lost, and will bring back that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong. I will feed them in justice.”’
“Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘Now I will reverse the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel. I will be jealous for my holy name.
Now God made Daniel find kindness and compassion in the sight of the prince of the eunuchs.
that they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his companions would not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you, and break off your sins by righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor; if there may be a lengthening of your tranquility.”
Then the king, when he heard these words, was very displeased, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him; and he labored until the going down of the sun to rescue him.
To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness; for we have rebelled against him.
“Now therefore, our God, listen to the prayer of your servant, and to his petitions, and cause your face to shine on your sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake.
My God, turn your ear, and hear. Open your eyes, and see our desolations, and the city which is called by your name; for we do not present our petitions before you for our righteousness, but for your great mercies’ sake.
Lord, hear. Lord, forgive. Lord, listen and do. Don’t defer, for your own sake, my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.”
She conceived again, and bore a daughter. Then he said to him, “Call her name Lo-Ruhamah; for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, that I should in any way pardon them.
But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and will save them by Yahweh their God, and will not save them by bow, sword, battle, horses, or horsemen.”
Indeed, on her children I will have no mercy; for they are children of unfaithfulness;
I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; and I will tell those who were not my people, ‘You are my people;’ and they will say, ‘My God!’”
For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
Yet I taught Ephraim to walk. I took them by his arms; but they didn’t know that I healed them.
“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within me, my compassion is aroused.
I will not execute the fierceness of my anger. I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One among you; and I will not come in wrath.
Assyria can’t save us. We won’t ride on horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, ‘Our gods!’ for in you the fatherless finds mercy.”
Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to Yahweh, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.
Who knows? He may turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meal offering and a drink offering to Yahweh, your God.
Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, “Spare your people, Yahweh, and don’t give your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”
Then Yahweh was jealous for his land, And had pity on his people.
I will cleanse their blood, that I have not cleansed: for Yahweh dwells in Zion.”
When they finished eating the grass of the land, then I said, “Lord Yahweh, forgive, I beg you! How could Jacob stand? For he is small.”
Yahweh relented concerning this. “It shall not be,” says Yahweh.
Then I said, “Lord Yahweh, stop, I beg you! How could Jacob stand? For he is small.”
Yahweh relented concerning this. “This also shall not be,” says the Lord Yahweh.
Don’t enter into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. Don’t look down on their affliction in the day of their calamity, neither seize their wealth on the day of their calamity.
Those who regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?”
God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he didn’t do it.
He prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Please, Yahweh, wasn’t this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm.
Yahweh said, “You have been concerned for the vine, for which you have not labored, neither made it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night.
Shouldn’t I be concerned for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who can’t discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much livestock?”
He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the disobedience of the remnant of his heritage? He doesn’t retain his anger forever, because he delights in loving kindness.
He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities under foot; and you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
You will give truth to Jacob, and mercy to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.
Will he therefore continually empty his net, and kill the nations without mercy?
Yahweh, I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds, Yahweh. Renew your work in the middle of the years. In the middle of the years make it known. In wrath, you remember mercy.
Behold, at that time I will deal with all those who afflict you, and I will save those who are lame, and gather those who were driven away. I will give them praise and honor, whose shame has been in all the earth.
Then Yahweh’s angel replied, “O Yahweh of Armies, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which you have had indignation these seventy years?”
Therefore Yahweh says: “I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and a line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.”’
“I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them back; for I have mercy on them; and they will be as though I had not cast them off: for I am Yahweh their God, and I will hear them.
“For I, Yahweh, don’t change; therefore you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
In the days of Enemessar, I did many alms deeds to my kindred: I gave my bread to the hungry,
and my garments to the naked. If I saw any of my race dead, and cast forth on the wall of Ninevah, I buried him.
Before I had tasted anything, I sprang up, and took him up into a chamber until the sun had set.
“O Lord, you are righteous, and all your works and all your ways are mercy and truth, and you judge true and righteous judgement forever.
Remember me, and look at me. Don’t take vengeance on me for my sins and my ignorances, and the sins of my fathers who sinned before you.
and that I never polluted my name or the name of my father, in the land of my captivity. I am the only daughter of my father, and he has no child that will be his heir, nor brother near him, nor son belonging to him, that I should keep myself for a wife to him. Seven husbands of mine are dead already. Why should I live? If it doesn’t please you to kill me, command some regard to be had of me, and pity taken of me, and that I hear no more reproach.”
The prayer of both was heard before the glory of the great God.
Give alms from your possessions. When you give alms, don’t let your eye be envious. Don’t turn away your face from any poor man, and the face of God won’t be turned away from you.
because alms-giving delivers from death, and doesn’t allow you to come into darkness.
Give of your bread to the hungry, and of your garments to those who are naked. Give alms from all your abundance. Don’t let your eye be envious when you give alms.
The demon will smell it, and flee away, and never come again any more. But when you go near to her, both of you rise up, and cry to God who is merciful. He will save you, and have mercy on you. Don’t be afraid, for she was prepared for you from the beginning; and you will save her, and she will go with you. And I suppose that you will have children with her.” When Tobias heard these things, he loved her, and his soul was strongly joined to her.
Raguel said, “Take her to yourself from now on according to custom. You are her relative, and she is yours. The merciful God will give all good success to you.”
And now, O Lord, I take not this my sister for lust, but in truth. Command that I may find mercy and grow old with her.”
Blessed are you, because you have made me glad; and it has not happened me as I suspected; but you have dealt with us according to your great mercy.
Blessed are you, because you have had mercy on two that were the only begotten children of their parents. Show them mercy, O Lord. Fulfill their life in health with gladness and mercy.
For you scourged, and had mercy on me. Behold, I see my son Tobias.” And his son went in rejoicing, and told his father the great things that had happened to him in Media.
Tobit gave thanks before them, because God had shown mercy on him. When Tobit came near to Sarah his daughter-in-law, he blessed her, saying, “Welcome, daughter! Blessed is God who has brought you to us, and blessed are your father and your mother.” And there was joy among all his kindred who were at Nineveh.
for he has led me for you in safety, and he cured my wife, and brought my money, and likewise cured you.”
And when you did not delay to rise up, and leave your dinner, that you might go and cover the dead, your good deed was not hidden from me. I was with you.
For he scourges, and shows mercy. He leads down to the grave, and brings up again. There is no one that will escape his hand.
He will scourge us for our iniquities, and will again show mercy, and will gather us out of all the nations among whom you are all scattered.
If you turn to him with your whole heart and with your whole soul, to do truth before him, then will he turn to you, and won’t hide his face from you. See what he will do with you. Give him thanks with your whole mouth. Bless the Lord of righteousness. Exalt the everlasting King. I give him thanks in the land of my captivity, and show his strength and majesty to a nation of sinners. Turn, you sinners, and do righteousness before him. Who can tell if he will accept you and have mercy on you?
O Jerusalem, the holy city, he will scourge you for the works of your sons, and will again have mercy on the sons of the righteous.
Give thanks to the Lord with goodness, and bless the everlasting King, that his tabernacle may be built in you again with joy, and that he may make glad in you those who are captives, and love in you forever those who are miserable.
God will again have mercy on them, and bring them back into the land, and they will build the house, but not like to the former house, until the times of that age are fulfilled. Afterward they will return from the places of their captivity, and build up Jerusalem with honor. The house of God will be built in it forever with a glorious building, even as the prophets spoke concerning it.
All the nations will bless the Lord, and his people will give thanks to God, and the Lord will exalt his people; and all those who love the Lord God in truth and righteousness will rejoice, showing mercy to our kindred.
But you must keep the law and the ordinances, and show yourself merciful and righteous, that it may be well with you.
“O Lord God of heaven, behold their arrogance, and pity the low estate of our race. Look upon the face of those who are sanctified to you this day.”
And Ozias said to them, “Brethren, be of good courage! Let us endure five more days, during which the Lord our God will turn his mercy toward us; for he will not forsake us utterly.
For your power stands not in multitude, nor your might in strong men: but you are a God of the afflicted. You are a helper of the oppressed, an upholder of the weak, a protector of the forlorn, a savior of those who are without hope.
She said to them with a loud voice, “Praise God! Praise him! Praise God, who has not taken away his mercy from the house of Israel, but has destroyed our enemies by my hand tonight!”
For the mountains will be moved from their foundations with the waters, and the rocks will melt as wax at your presence: But you are yet merciful to those who fear you.
So Mordecai went and did all that Esther commanded him. [And he implored the Lord, making mention of all the works of the Lord; and he said, Lord God, king ruling over all, for all things are in your power, and there is no one that shall oppose you, in your purpose to save Israel. - For you have made the heaven and the earth and every wonderful thing in the world under heaven. And you are Lord of all, and there is no one who shall resist you Lord. You know all things: you know, Lord, that it is not in insolence, nor haughtiness, nor love of glory, that I have done this, to refuse to bow down to the haughty Haman. For I would gladly have kissed the soles of his feet for the safety of Israel. But I have done this, that I might not set the glory of man above the glory of God: and I will not worship any one except you, my Lord, and I will not do these things in haughtiness. And now, O Lord God, the King, the God of Abraam, spare your people, for our enemies are looking upon us to our destruction, and they have desired to destroy your ancient inheritance. Do not overlook your peculiar people, whom you have redeemed for yourself out of the land of Egypt. Hearken to my prayer, and be propitious to your inheritance, and turn our mourning into gladness, that we may live and sing praise to your name, O Lord; and do not utterly destroy the mouth of them that praise you, O Lord. And all Israel cried with all their might, for death was before their eyes. And queen Esther took refuge in the Lord, being taken as it were in the agony of death. And having taken off her glorious apparel, she put on garments of distress and mourning; and instead of grand perfumes she filled her head with ashes and dung, and she greatly brought down her body, and she filled every place of her glad adorning with the torn curls of her hair. And she implored the Lord God of Israel, and said, O my Lord, you alone are our king: help me who am destitute, and have no helper but you, for my danger is near at hand. I have heard from my birth, in the tribe of my kindred that you, Lord, took Israel out of all the nations, and our fathers out of all their kindred for a perpetual inheritance, and have wrought for them all that you have said. And now we have sinned before you, and you have delivered us into the hands of our enemies, because we honored their gods: you are righteous, O Lord. But now they have not been contented with the bitterness of our slavery, but have laid their hands on the hands of their idols, in order to abolish the decree of your mouth, and utterly to destroy your inheritances, and to stop the mouth of them that praise you, and to extinguish the glory of your house and your alter, and to open the mouth of the Gentiles to speak the praises of vanities, and in order that a mortal king should be admired for ever. O Lord, do not resign your sceptre to them that are not, and let them not laugh at our fall, but turn their counsel, against themselves, and make an example of him who has begun to injure us. Remember us , O Lord, manifest yourself in the time of our affliction, and encourage me, O King of gods, and ruler of all dominion. Put harmonious speech into my mouth before the lion, and turn his heart to hate him that fights against us, to the utter destruction of him that consent with him. But deliver us by your hand, and help me who am destitute, and have none but the, O Lord. You know all things, and know that I hate the glory of transgressors, and that I abhor the couch of the uncircumcised, and of every stranger. You know my necessity, for I abhor the symbol of my proud station, which is upon my head in the days of my splendor: I abhor it as a menstruous cloth, and I wear it not in the days of my tranquility. And your handmaid has not eaten at the table of Haman, and I have not honored the banquet of the king, neither have I drunk wine of libations. Neither has your handmaid rejoiced since the day of my promotion until now, except in you, O Lord God of Abraam. O god, who has power over all, hearken to the voice of the desperate, and deliver us from the hand of them that devise mischief; and deliver me from my fear.]
And she answered and said, If I have found favor in the sight of the king, let my life be granted to my petition, and my people to my request.
And she spoke yet again to the king, and fell at his feet, and implored him to do away the mischief of Haman, and all that he had done against the Jews.
And Esther said, If it seem good to you, and I have found favor in your sight , let an order be sent that the letters sent by Haman may be reversed, that were written for the destruction of the Jews, who are in your kingdom.
For how shall I be able to look upon the affliction of my people, and how shall I be able to survive the destruction of my kindred?
They that trust on him will understand truth, And the faithful will abide with him in love; Because grace and mercy are to his chosen.
But as for the peoples, seeing and understanding not, Neither laying this to heart, That grace and mercy are with his chosen, And that he visiteth his holy ones:—
For the man of low estate may be pardoned in mercy, But mighty men will be searched out mightily.
O God of the fathers, and Lord who keep your mercy, Who made all things by your word;
For by what things their foes were punished, By these they in their need were benefited.
To rebuke the decree for the slaying of babes, You gave them abundant water beyond all hope,
For when they were tried, albeit but in mercy chastened, They learned how the ungodly were tormented, being judged with wrath:
For when they heard that through their own punishments the others had been benefited, They felt the presence of the Lord;












