Joseph’s brethren
Genesis 50:17
‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive
your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’
Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When
their message came to him, Joseph wept.
Israel
Numbers 21:7-9
7 The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke
against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away
from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
8 The LORD said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a
pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.”
9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then
when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.
Judges 2:4
When the angel of the LORD had spoken these things to all the
Israelites, the people wept aloud,
Ezra 9:4-14
4 Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of
Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I
sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice.
5 Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my
self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my
hands spread out to the LORD my God
6 and prayed: “O my God, I am too ashamed and disgraced to
lift up my face to you, my God, because our sins are higher than our heads and
our guilt has reached to the heavens.
7 From the days of our forefathers until now, our guilt has
been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been
subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of
foreign kings, as it is today.
8 “But now, for a brief moment, the LORD our God has been
gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm place in his sanctuary,
and so our God gives light to our eyes and a little relief in our bondage.
9 Though we are slaves, our God has not deserted us in our
bondage. He has shown us kindness in the sight of the kings of Persia: He has
granted us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, and
he has given us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem.
10 “But now, O our God, what can we say after this? For we
have disregarded the commands
11 you gave through your servants the prophets when you said:
‘The land you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the corruption of
its peoples. By their detestable practices they have filled it with their
impurity from one end to the other.
12 Therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their
sons or take their daughters for your sons. Do not seek a treaty of friendship
with them at any time, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the
land and leave it to your children as an everlasting inheritance.’
13 “What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and
our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins have
deserved and have given us a remnant like this.
14 Shall we again break your commands and intermarry with the
peoples who commit such detestable practices? Would you not be angry enough
with us to destroy us, leaving us no remnant or survivor?
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