Leviticus 26:42

Hebrew Bible

40 However, when they confess their iniquity and their ancestors’ iniquities which they committed by trespassing against me, by which they also walked in hostility against me 41 (and I myself will walk in hostility against them and bring them into the land of their enemies), and then their uncircumcised hearts become humbled and they make up for their iniquities, 42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. 43 The land will be abandoned by them in order that it may make up for its Sabbaths while it is made desolate without them, and they will make up for their iniquity because they have rejected my regulations and have abhorred my statutes. 44 In spite of this, however, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them and abhor them to make a complete end of them, to break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God.

2 Chronicles 7:14

Hebrew Bible

12 the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him: “I have answered your prayer and chosen this place to be my temple where sacrifices are to be made. 13 When I close up the sky so that it doesn’t rain, or command locusts to devour the land’s vegetation, or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who belong to me, humble themselves, pray, seek to please me, and repudiate their sinful practices, then I will respond from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. 15 Now I will be attentive and responsive to the prayers offered in this place. 16 Now I have chosen and consecrated this temple by making it my permanent home; I will be constantly present there.

 Notes and References

"... wherever repentance occurs in the early narratives, it is a human virtue, not a divine imperative. God calls neither upon man to repent nor upon his prophet to rouse him to repentance. The role of Moses is to intercede for Israel so that God will annul his decree (e.g., Exodus 32:11-13; 31; 33:12-16; 34:9; Numbers 12:11-13; 14:13-19; Deuteronomy 9:16-29), but not once is he expected to bring his people to repentance so that they night merit divine forgiveness. Other intercessors are also recorded in the early narratives, such as Abraham (Genesis 18:23; 20:7), Samuel (1 Samuel 7:5-9; 12:19; 15-11, compare Jeremiah 15:1, Psalm 99:6), Elijah (1 Kings 17:20; 18:24), Elisha (2 Kings 4:33; 5:11; 6:15-20), and Job (Job 42:6-9). These righteous leaders, just like Moses, turn to God for pardon but not to man for his repentance. It is against the backdrop of embryonic repentance that the innovation of the Priestly legislators can be measured. The analysis of the Priestly terms “asam” and “hitwadda” has shown that the principle of repentance is operative in sacrificial expiation. That this principle is also adumbrated in P’s hortatory admonitions, Leviticus 26, becomes evident by comparing its idiom with Isaiah (26:39-40; Isaiah 10:21-22; compare 7:3). Furthermore, if 26:39 means “shall be heartsick”, then the theology of chapter 26 is precisely equivalent to Isaiah’s, for like the prophet it predicts that Israel will repent after it is exiled. Thus, as both texts are saying the same thing - that a remnant (of Israel) will repent - Isaiah’s “sub” approximates P’s “hitwadda”. Last, a third penitential term in the Leviticus passage, ‘humble itself’ (verse 41), appears in the later narratives as a synonym for repentance (1 Kings 21:29; 2 Kings 22:19; 2 Chronicles 34:27; 2 Chronicles 7:14) ..."

Milgrom, Jacob Leviticus 1-16: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (p. 376) Doubleday, 1991

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