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Isaiah 59:20
“ I set my people free. I will come to Mount Zion. I will come to those in Jacob’s family who turn away from their sins,” announces the Lord.
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Zechariah 10:6-12
“ I will make the family of Judah strong. I will save the tribes of Joseph. I will bring them back because I have tender love for them. It will be as if I had not sent them away. I am the Lord their God. I will help them.The people of Ephraim will become like warriors. Their hearts will be glad as if they were drinking wine. Their children will see it and be filled with joy. I will make their hearts glad.I will signal for my people to come, and I will gather them in. I will set them free. There will be as many of them as before.I have scattered them among the nations. But in lands far away they will remember me. They and their children will be kept alive. And they will return.I will bring them back from Egypt. I will gather them from Assyria. I will bring them to Gilead and Lebanon. There will not be enough room for them.They will pass through a sea of trouble. The stormy sea will calm down. All the deep places in the Nile River will dry up. Assyria’s pride will be brought down. Egypt’s right to rule will disappear.I will make my people strong. They will live in safety because of me,” announces the Lord.
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Hosea 3:5
After that, the people of Israel will return to the Lord their God. They will look to him and to a king from the family line of David. In the last days, they will tremble with fear as they come to the Lord. And they will receive his full blessing.
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Amos 9:14-15
I will bring my people Israel back home. I will bless them with great success again. They will rebuild the destroyed cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink the wine they produce. They will make gardens and eat their fruit.I will plant Israel in their own land. They will never again be removed from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God.
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Jeremiah 31:31-37
“ The days are coming,” announces the Lord.“ I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel. I will also make it with the people of Judah.It will not be like the covenant I made with their people of long ago. That was when I took them by the hand. I led them out of Egypt. But they broke my covenant. They did it even though I was like a husband to them,” announces the Lord.“ This is the covenant I will make with Israel after that time,” announces the Lord.“ I will put my law in their minds. I will write it on their hearts. I will be their God. And they will be my people.They will not need to teach their neighbor anymore. And they will not need to teach one another anymore. They will not need to say,‘ Know the Lord.’ That’s because everyone will know me. From the least important of them to the most important, all of them will know me,” announces the Lord.“ I will forgive their evil ways. I will not remember their sins anymore.”The Lord speaks. He makes the sun shine by day. He orders the moon and stars to shine at night. He stirs up the ocean. He makes its waves roar. His name is the Lord Who Rules Over All.“ Suppose my orders for creation disappear from my sight,” announces the Lord.“ Only then will the people of Israel stop being a nation in my sight.”The Lord says,“ Suppose the sky above could be measured. Suppose the foundations of the earth below could be completely discovered. Only then would I turn away the people of Israel. Even though they have committed many sins, I will still accept them,” announces the Lord.
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Joel 3:16-21
The Lord will roar like a lion from Jerusalem. His voice will sound like thunder from Zion. The earth and the heavens will tremble. But the Lord will keep the people of Israel safe. He will be a place of safety for them.The Lord says,“ You will know that I am the Lord your God. I live in Zion. It is my holy mountain. Jerusalem will be my holy city. People from other lands will never again attack it.“ At that time fresh wine will drip from the mountains. Milk will flow down from the hills. Water will run through all Judah’s valleys. A fountain will flow out of my temple. It will water the places where acacia trees grow.But Egypt will be deserted. Edom will become a dry and empty desert. They did terrible harm to the people of Judah. My people were not guilty of doing anything wrong. But Egypt and Edom spilled their blood anyway.My people will live in Judah and Jerusalem forever. The land will be their home for all time to come.Egypt and Edom have spilled my people’s blood. Should I let them escape my judgment? No, I will not.” The Lord lives in Zion!
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Isaiah 45:17
But the Lord will save Israel. He will save them forever. They will never be put to shame or dishonored. That will be true for all time to come.
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Psalms 14:7
How I pray that the God who saves Israel will come out of Zion! Then the Lord will bless his people with great success again. So let the people of Jacob be filled with joy! Let Israel be glad!
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Ezekiel 37:21-28
Tell them,‘ The Lord and King says,“ I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them together from all around. I will bring them back to their own land.There I will make them one nation. They will live on the mountains of Israel. All of them will have one king. They will never be two nations again. They will never again be separated into two kingdoms.They will no longer make themselves‘ unclean’ by worshiping any of their evil gods. They will not do wrong things anymore. They always turn away from me. But I will save them from that sin. I will make them pure and‘ clean.’ They will be my people. And I will be their God.“‘ “A man who belongs to the family line of my servant David will be their king. All of them will have one shepherd. They will obey my laws. And they will be careful to keep my rules.They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob. That is where your people of long ago lived. They, their children, their children’s children, and their children after them will live there forever. And my servant from David’s family line will be their prince forever.I will make a covenant with them. It promises to give them peace. The covenant will last forever. I will make them my people. And I will cause there to be many of them. I will put my temple among them forever.I will live with them. I will be their God. And they will be my people.My temple will be among them forever. Then the nations will know that I make Israel holy. I am the Lord.” ’ ”
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Matthew 1:21
She is going to have a son. You must give him the name Jesus. That’s because he will save his people from their sins.”
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Titus 2:14
He gave himself for us. By doing that, he set us free from all evil. He wanted to make us pure. He wanted us to be his very own people. He wanted us to desire to do what is good.
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Acts 3:26
God raised up Jesus, who serves him. God sent him first to you. He did it to bless you. He wanted to turn each of you from your evil ways.”
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Jeremiah 30:17-22
But I will make you healthy again. I will heal your wounds,” announces the Lord.“ That’s because you have been thrown out. You are called Zion, the one no one cares about.”The Lord says,“ I will bless Jacob’s people with great success again. I will show tender love to Israel. Jerusalem will be rebuilt where it was destroyed. The palace will stand in its proper place.From those places the songs of people giving thanks will be heard. The sound of great joy will come from there. I will cause there to be more of my people. There will not be fewer of them. I will bring them honor. People will have respect for them.Things will be as they used to be for Jacob’s people. I will make their community firm and secure. I will punish everyone who treats them badly.Their leader will be one of their own people. Their ruler will rise up from among them. I will bring him near. And he will come close to me. He will commit himself to serve me,” announces the Lord.“ So you will be my people. And I will be your God.”
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Zephaniah 3:12-20
But inside your city I will leave those who are not proud at all. Those who are still left alive will trust in the Lord.They will not do anything wrong. They will not tell any lies. They will not say anything to fool other people. They will eat and lie down in peace. And no one will make them afraid.”People of Zion, sing! Israel, shout loudly! People of Jerusalem, be glad! Let your hearts be full of joy.The Lord has stopped punishing you. He has made your enemies turn away from you. The Lord is the King of Israel. He is with you. You will never again be afraid that others will harm you.The time is coming when people will say to Jerusalem,“ Zion, don’t be afraid. Don’t give up.The Lord your God is with you. He is the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you. In his love he will no longer punish you. Instead, he will sing for joy because of you.”The Lord says to his people,“ You used to celebrate my appointed feasts in Jerusalem. You are sad because you can’t do that anymore. Other people make fun of you because of that. That sadness was a heavy load for you to carry. But I will remove that load from you.At that time I will punish all those who crushed you. I will save those among you who are disabled. I will gather those who have been taken away. I will give them praise and honor in every land where they have been put to shame.At that time I will gather you together. And I will bring you home. I will give you honor and praise among all the nations on earth. I will bless you with great success again,” says the Lord.
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Jeremiah 33:24-26
“ Haven’t you noticed what these people are saying? They say,‘ The Lord once chose the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah. But now he has turned his back on them.’ So they hate my people. They do not think of them as a nation anymore.I say,‘ What if I had not made my covenant with day and night? What if I had not established the laws of heaven and earth?Only then would I turn my back on the children of Jacob and my servant David. Only then would I not choose one of David’s sons to rule over the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But I will bless my people with great success again. I will love them with tender love.’ ”
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Psalms 106:47
Lord our God, save us. Bring us back from among the nations. Then we will give thanks to you, because your name is holy. We will celebrate by praising you.
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Jeremiah 3:17-23
At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the Lord. All the nations will gather together there. They will go there to honor me. They will no longer do what their stubborn and evil hearts want them to do.In those days the people of Judah will join the people of Israel. Together they will come from a land in the north. They will come to the land I gave to your people of long ago. I wanted them to have it as their very own.“ I myself said,“‘ I would gladly treat you like my children. I would give you a pleasant land. It is the most beautiful land any nation could have.’ I thought you would call me‘ Father.’ I hoped you would always obey me.But you people are like a woman who is not faithful to her husband. Israel, you have not been faithful to me,” announces the Lord.A cry is heard on the bare hilltops. The people of Israel are weeping and begging for help. That’s because their lives are so twisted. They’ve forgotten the Lord their God.“ You have not been faithful,” says the Lord.“ Return to me. I will heal you. Then you will not turn away from me anymore.”“ Yes,” the people say.“ We will come to you. You are the Lord our God.The gods we worship on the hills and mountains are useless. You are the Lord our God. You are the only one who can save us.
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Isaiah 54:6-10
You were like a wife who was deserted. And her heart was broken. You were like a wife who married young. And her husband sent her away. But now I am calling you to come back,” says your God.“ For a brief moment I left you. But because I love you so much, I will bring you back.For a moment I turned my face away from you. I was very angry with you. But I will show you my loving concern. My faithful love will continue forever,” says the Lord. He is the one who set you free.“ During Noah’s time I made a promise. I said I would never cover the earth with water again. In the same way, I have promised not to be angry with you. I will never punish you again.The mountains might shake. The hills might be removed. But my faithful love for you will never be shaken. And my covenant that promises peace to you will never be removed,” says the Lord. He shows you his loving concern.
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Ezekiel 34:22-31
But I will save my sheep. They will not be carried off anymore. I will judge between one sheep and another.I will place one shepherd over them. He will belong to the family line of my servant David. He will take good care of them. He will look after them. He will be their shepherd.I am the Lord. I will be their God. And my servant from David’s family line will be the prince among them. I have spoken. I am the Lord.“ I will make a covenant with them. It promises to give them peace. I will get rid of the wild animals in the land. Then my sheep can live safely in the desert. They can sleep in the forests.I will make them and the places surrounding my holy mountain of Zion a blessing. I will send down rain at the right time. There will be showers of blessing.The trees will bear their fruit. And the ground will produce its crops. The people will be secure in their land. I will break the chains that hold them. I will save them from the power of those who made them slaves. Then they will know that I am the Lord.The nations will not carry them off anymore. Wild animals will no longer eat them up. They will live in safety. And no one will make them afraid.I will give them a land that is famous for its crops. They will never again be hungry there. The nations will not make fun of them anymore.Then they will know that I am with them. I am the Lord their God. And the Israelites will know that they are my people,” announces the Lord and King.“ You are my sheep. You belong to my flock. And I am your God,” announces the Lord and King.
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Micah 7:15-20
The Lord says to his people,“ I showed you my wonders when you came out of Egypt long ago. In the same way, I will show them to you again.”When the nations see those wonders, they will be put to shame. All their power will be taken away from them. They will be so amazed that they won’t be able to speak or hear.They’ll be forced to eat dust like a snake. They’ll be like creatures that have to crawl on the ground. They’ll come out of their dens trembling with fear. They’ll show respect for the Lord our God. They will also have respect for his people.Lord, who is a God like you? You forgive sin. You forgive your people when they do what is wrong. You don’t stay angry forever. Instead, you take delight in showing your faithful love to them.Once again you will show loving concern for us. You will completely wipe out the evil things we’ve done. You will throw all our sins into the bottom of the sea.You will be faithful to Jacob’s people. You will show your love to Abraham’s children. You will do what you promised to do for our people. You made that promise long ago.
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Jeremiah 32:37-41
“ You can be sure that I will gather my people again. I will send them away when my burning anger blazes out against them. But I will bring them back to this place. And I will let them live in safety.They will be my people. And I will be their God.I will give them a single purpose in life. Then, they will always have respect for me. Then all will go well for them. And it will also go well for their children after them.I will make a covenant with them that will last forever. I promise that I will never stop doing good to them. I will cause them to respect me. Then they will never turn away from me again.I will take pleasure in doing good things for them. I will certainly plant them in this land. I will do these things with all my heart and soul.”
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Isaiah 11:11-16
At that time the Lord will reach out his hand. He will gather his people a second time. He will bring back those who are left alive. He’ll bring them back from Assyria, Lower Egypt, Upper Egypt and Cush. He’ll bring them from Elam, Babylon and Hamath. He will also bring them from the islands of the Mediterranean Sea.He will lift up a banner. It will show the nations that he is gathering the people of Israel. He’ll bring back those who had been taken away as prisoners. He’ll gather together the scattered people of Judah. He’ll bring them back from all four directions.Ephraim’s people won’t be jealous anymore. Judah’s attackers will be destroyed. Ephraim won’t be jealous of Judah. And Judah won’t attack Ephraim.Together they will rush down the slopes of Philistia to the west. They’ll take what belongs to the people of the east. They’ll take over Edom and Moab. The people of Ammon will be under their control.The Lord will dry up the Red Sea in Egypt. By his power he’ll send a burning wind to sweep over the Euphrates River. He will break it up into many streams. Then people will be able to go across it wearing sandals.There was a road the people of Israel used when they came up from Egypt. In the same way, there will be a wide road coming out of Assyria. It will be used by the Lord’ s people who are left alive there.
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Ezekiel 39:25-40:48
The Lord and King says,“ I will now cause the people of Jacob to recover from my judgment. I will show my tender love for all the people of Israel. I will make sure that my name is kept holy.My people will forget the shameful things they have done. They will not remember all the ways they were unfaithful to me. They used to live in safety in their land. At that time no one made them afraid.So I will bring them back from the nations. I will gather them from the countries of their enemies. And I will use them to prove to many nations how holy I am.Then they will know that I am the Lord their God. I let the nations take my people away as prisoners. But now I will bring them back to their own land. I will not leave anyone behind.I will no longer turn my face away from the people of Israel. I will pour out my Spirit on them,” announces the Lord and King.It was the 14th year after Jerusalem had been captured. We had been brought to Babylon as prisoners. It was the tenth day of a month near the beginning of the 25th year after that. On that day the power of the Lord came on me. He took me back to my land.In visions God gave me, he brought me to the land of Israel. He set me on a very high mountain. Some buildings were on the south side of it. They looked like a city.He took me there. I saw a man who appeared to be made out of bronze. He was standing at the gate of the outer courtyard. He was holding a linen measuring tape and a measuring rod.The man said to me,“ Son of man, look carefully and listen closely. Pay attention to everything I show you. That is why the Lord brought you here. Tell the people of Israel everything you see.”I saw a wall that completely surrounded the temple area. The measuring rod in the man’s hand was 11 feet long. He measured the wall with it. The wall was as thick and as high as one measuring rod.Then the man went to the east gate. He climbed its steps. He measured the gateway. It was one rod wide.The rooms where the guards stood were one rod long and one rod wide. The walls between the rooms were almost nine feet thick. The gateway next to the porch was one rod wide. The porch faced the front of the temple.Then the man measured the porch of the gateway.It was 14 feet wide. Each of its doorposts was three and a half feet thick. The porch of the gateway faced the front of the temple.Inside the east gate were three rooms on each side. All the rooms were the same size. The walls on each side of the rooms had the same thickness.Then the man measured the entrance of the gateway. It was 18 feet wide and 23 feet long.In front of each room was a wall. It was 21 inches high. The rooms measured 11 feet on each side.Then he measured the gateway from the back wall of one room to the back wall of the room across from it. It was 44 feet from the top of one wall to the top of the other.He measured along the front of the side walls all around the inside of the gateway. The total was 105 feet. That didn’t include the porch that faced the courtyard.It was 88 feet from the entrance of the gateway to the far end of its porch.The rooms and their side walls inside the gateway had narrow openings on top of them. So did the porch. All the openings faced the inside. The front of each side wall was decorated with a palm tree.Then the man brought me into the outer courtyard. There I saw some rooms and a sidewalk. They had been built all around the courtyard. Along the sidewalk were 30 rooms.The sidewalk went all the way up to the sides of the gateways. It was as wide as they were long. This was the lower sidewalk.Then he measured from the inside of the lower gateway to the outside of the inner courtyard. The east side measured 175 feet. So did the north side.Then the man measured the north gate. He wanted to show me how long and wide it was. The gate led into the outer courtyard.It had three rooms on each side. Their side walls and porch measured the same as the ones at the first gateway. They measured 88 feet long and 44 feet wide.Its openings, porch and palm tree decorations measured the same as the ones at the east gate. Seven steps led up to the north gate. Its porch was across from them.The inner courtyard had a gate. It faced the gate on the north. It was just like the east gate. He measured from one gate to the one across from it. The total was 175 feet.Then the man led me to the south side of the courtyard. There I saw the south gate. He measured its doorposts and porch. They measured the same as the others.The gateway and its porch had narrow openings all around. The openings were the same as the others had. The side walls and porch measured 88 feet long and 44 feet wide.Seven steps led up to it. Its porch was across from them. The front of each side wall was decorated with a palm tree.The inner courtyard also had a gate that faced south. The man measured from this gate to the outer gate on the south side. The total was 175 feet.Then the man brought me into the inner courtyard. We went through the south gate. He measured it. It was the same size as the others.Its rooms, side walls and porch measured the same as the ones at the other gateways. The gateway and its porch had openings all around. The side walls and porch measured 88 feet long and 44 feet wide.The porches of the gateways around the inner courtyard were 44 feet wide and nine feet long.Its porch faced the outer courtyard. Palm trees decorated its doorposts. Eight steps led up to it.Then the man brought me to the east side of the inner courtyard. There he measured the gateway. It was the same size as the others.Its rooms, side walls and porch measured the same as the ones at the other gateways. The gateway and its porch had openings all around. The side walls and porch measured 88 feet long and 44 feet wide.Its porch faced the outer courtyard. Each doorpost was decorated with a palm tree. Eight steps led up to the porch.Then the man brought me to the north gate. He measured it. It was the same size as the others.Its rooms, side walls and porch measured the same as the ones at the other gateways. It had openings all around. The side walls and the porch measured 88 feet long and 44 feet wide.The porch faced the outer courtyard. Each doorpost was decorated with a palm tree. Eight steps led up to the porch.A room with a doorway was by the porch of each inner gateway. The burnt offerings were washed there.On each side of the porch of the gateway were two tables. The burnt offerings were killed on them. So were the sin offerings and guilt offerings.Two more tables were by the outer wall of the gateway porch. They were near the steps at the entrance of the north gateway. Two more tables were on the other side of the steps.So there were four tables on each side of the gateway. The total number of tables was eight. Animals for sacrifice were killed on all of them.There were also four other tables for the burnt offerings. They were made out of blocks of stone. Each table was two and a half feet long and two and a half feet wide. And each was almost two feet high. The tools for killing the burnt offerings and other sacrifices were placed on them.Large hooks hung on the walls all around. Each was three inches long. The meat of the offerings was placed on the tables.Near the inner gates were two rooms. They were in the inner courtyard. One room was next to the north gate. It faced south. The other one was next to the south gate. It faced north.The man said to me,“ The room that faces south is for the priests who guard the temple.The one that faces north is for the priests who guard the altar. All these priests are the sons of Zadok. They are the only Levites who can approach the Lord to serve him.”Then the man measured the courtyard. It was square. It measured 175 feet long and 175 feet wide. And the altar was in front of the temple.The man brought me to the porch of the temple. He measured the doorposts of the porch. Each of them was almost nine feet wide. The entrance was 24 and a half feet wide. Each of the side walls was a little over five feet wide.
