2 Corinthians 7:9

¹⁸“I have surely heard Ephraim grieving thus, ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as an untrained calf. Turn me, and I will be turned, for you are the LORD my God. ¹⁹Surely after that I was turned. I repented. After that I was instructed. I struck my thigh. I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I bore the reproach of my youth.’ ²⁰Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I still earnestly remember him. Therefore my heart yearns for him. I will surely have mercy on him,” says the LORD.

⁷I tell you that even so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.

¹⁰For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world produces death. ¹¹For behold, this same thing, that you were grieved in a godly way, what earnest care it worked in you. Yes, what defense, indignation, fear, longing, zeal, and vindication! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be pure in the matter.

⁸For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. ⁹For we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong. We also pray for this: your becoming perfect. ¹⁰For this cause I write these things while absent, that I may not deal sharply when present, according to the authority which the Lord gave me for building up and not for tearing down.

⁸For even if I boast somewhat abundantly concerning our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for casting you down, I will not be ashamed, ⁹that I may not seem as if I desire to terrify you by my letters. ¹⁰For, “His letters”, they say, “are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech is despised.”

¹⁸For I will declare my iniquity. I will be sorry for my sin.

³Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the face the heart is made good.

¹²For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we behaved ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you.

¹⁰I will pour on David’s house and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication. They will look to me^[+] they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for his firstborn.

¹⁰Even so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner repenting.”