100 Bible Verses about Repentance

Acts 3:19 ESV / 4,676 helpful votes

Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out,

2 Peter 3:9 ESV / 3,690 helpful votes

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Matthew 4:17 ESV / 3,581 helpful votes

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Acts 2:38 ESV / 3,568 helpful votes

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 17:30 ESV / 2,911 helpful votes

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

Romans 2:4 ESV / 2,881 helpful votes

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

Acts 11:18 ESV / 2,842 helpful votes

When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

Matthew 3:8 ESV / 2,805 helpful votes

Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV / 2,735 helpful votes

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

1 John 1:9 ESV / 2,659 helpful votes

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Luke 13:3 ESV / 2,345 helpful votes

No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

Luke 5:32 ESV / 2,274 helpful votes

I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Revelation 2:5 ESV / 2,228 helpful votes

Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

2 Timothy 2:25 ESV / 2,098 helpful votes

Correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,

Acts 5:31 ESV / 2,094 helpful votes

God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

Mark 1:15 ESV / 2,052 helpful votes

And saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

2 Corinthians 7:10 ESV / 2,013 helpful votes

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

Proverbs 28:13 ESV / 1,959 helpful votes

Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

Revelation 3:19 ESV / 1,952 helpful votes

Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.

Matthew 3:2 ESV / 1,920 helpful votes

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Luke 15:7 ESV / 1,787 helpful votes

Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Acts 26:20 ESV / 1,735 helpful votes

But declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.

Acts 20:21 ESV / 1,715 helpful votes

Testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Luke 24:47 ESV / 1,671 helpful votes

And that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

Isaiah 30:15 ESV / 1,654 helpful votes

For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling,

Ezekiel 18:21-23 ESV / 1,483 helpful votes

“But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?

Revelation 3:3 ESV / 1,426 helpful votes

Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.

Matthew 3:11 ESV / 1,423 helpful votes

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Mark 1:4 ESV / 1,368 helpful votes

John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Acts 8:22 ESV / 1,342 helpful votes

Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.

Luke 3:3 ESV / 1,293 helpful votes

And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

2 Corinthians 7:9 ESV / 1,272 helpful votes

As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.

Hebrews 6:1 ESV / 1,239 helpful votes

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

Ezekiel 18:30-32 ESV / 1,239 helpful votes

“Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.”

Mark 6:12 ESV / 1,227 helpful votes

So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent.

Luke 3:8 ESV / 1,133 helpful votes

Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

Luke 17:3 ESV / 1,097 helpful votes

Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him,

Ezekiel 18:32 ESV / 1,066 helpful votes

For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.”

Psalm 51:1-19 ESV / 1,062 helpful votes

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. ...

Acts 19:4 ESV / 1,060 helpful votes

And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.”

Luke 15:10 ESV / 1,052 helpful votes

Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Jonah 3:10 ESV / 1,045 helpful votes

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

John 3:16 ESV / 1,008 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Matthew 9:13 ESV / 979 helpful votes

Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

2 Corinthians 7:9-10 ESV / 972 helpful votes

As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

Romans 2:5 ESV / 969 helpful votes

But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

Acts 13:24 ESV / 953 helpful votes

Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.

Hebrews 6:6 ESV / 945 helpful votes

And then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

Isaiah 55:6-7 ESV / 923 helpful votes

“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Psalm 38:18 ESV / 906 helpful votes

I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin.

Matthew 21:32 ESV / 897 helpful votes

For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.

Matthew 12:41 ESV / 877 helpful votes

The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

Joel 2:13 ESV / 849 helpful votes

And rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.

Isaiah 44:22 ESV / 823 helpful votes

I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.

Exodus 32:14 ESV / 819 helpful votes

And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

Romans 6:23 ESV / 791 helpful votes

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jeremiah 31:19 ESV / 791 helpful votes

For after I had turned away, I relented, and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh; I was ashamed, and I was confounded, because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’

Jeremiah 26:3 ESV / 789 helpful votes

It may be they will listen, and every one turn from his evil way, that I may relent of the disaster that I intend to do to them because of their evil deeds.

Mark 1:14-15 ESV / 757 helpful votes

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

John 6:44 ESV / 745 helpful votes

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV / 736 helpful votes

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Isaiah 6:10 ESV / 731 helpful votes

Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

James 5:19-20 ESV / 726 helpful votes

My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Psalm 51:4 ESV / 723 helpful votes

Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

Luke 24:46-47 ESV / 708 helpful votes

And said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

Ezekiel 33:11 ESV / 697 helpful votes

Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

Luke 13:5 ESV / 694 helpful votes

No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Acts 11:21 ESV / 691 helpful votes

And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.

Psalm 51:13 ESV / 682 helpful votes

Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.

Psalm 23:1-6 ESV / 670 helpful votes

A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ...

Luke 3:8-9 ESV / 656 helpful votes

Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

Romans 7:1-25 ESV / 651 helpful votes

Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. ...

2 Peter 3:8 ESV / 649 helpful votes

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Deuteronomy 4:29-31 ESV / 648 helpful votes

But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.

Job 42:6 ESV / 638 helpful votes

Therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Hosea 14:1 ESV / 625 helpful votes

Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.

Lamentations 5:21 ESV / 619 helpful votes

Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old—

Hebrews 12:17 ESV / 614 helpful votes

For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

Psalm 51:1-4 ESV / 601 helpful votes

Revelation 2:16 ESV / 593 helpful votes

Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.

Isaiah 19:22 ESV / 592 helpful votes

And the Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the Lord, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them.

Ezekiel 18:23 ESV / 591 helpful votes

Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?

2 Chronicles 30:9 ESV / 581 helpful votes

For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.”

Matthew 11:20 ESV / 575 helpful votes

Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.

Revelation 21:4 ESV / 567 helpful votes

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Jeremiah 18:8 ESV / 563 helpful votes

And if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it.

Psalm 34:14 ESV / 540 helpful votes

Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

Revelation 2:21 ESV / 518 helpful votes

I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.

Jeremiah 24:7 ESV / 511 helpful votes

I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

Luke 5:31-32 ESV / 490 helpful votes

And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Psalm 41:4 ESV / 484 helpful votes

As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you!”

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV / 483 helpful votes

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Ezekiel 14:6 ESV / 467 helpful votes

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations.

Isaiah 55:7 ESV / 464 helpful votes

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Jeremiah 31:18-20 ESV / 459 helpful votes

I have heard Ephraim grieving, ‘You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined, like an untrained calf; bring me back that I may be restored, for you are the Lord my God. For after I had turned away, I relented, and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh; I was ashamed, and I was confounded, because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’ Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the Lord.

Isaiah 1:1-31 ESV / 439 helpful votes

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. ...

Zechariah 1:3 ESV / 421 helpful votes

Therefore say to them, Thus declares the Lord of hosts: Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.

Genesis 6:6-7 ESV / 409 helpful votes

And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

Lamentations 3:40 ESV / 407 helpful votes

Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord!

1 Thessalonians 1:9 ESV / 394 helpful votes

For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,

BELIEVERS VOICE OF ALL NATIONS