Psalms 103:13

¹¹“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he won’t give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? ¹²Or if he asks for an egg, he won’t give him a scorpion, will he?

⁵You have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him; ⁶for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

⁷It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline? ⁸But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then you are illegitimate, and not children. ⁹Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? ¹⁰For they indeed for a few days disciplined us as seemed good to them, but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. ¹¹All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

¹⁷But the LORD’s loving kindness is from everlasting to everlasting with those who fear him, his righteousness to children’s children,

²¹The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

²²“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.

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.

¹²for whom the LORD loves, he corrects, even as a father reproves the son in whom he delights.

⁹They will come with weeping. I will lead them with petitions. I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they won’t stumble; for I am a father to Israel. Ephraim is my firstborn.

¹¹The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his loving kindness.

²But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out and leap like calves of the stall.

¹⁶Then those who feared the LORD spoke one with another; and the LORD listened and heard, and a book of memory was written before him for those who feared the LORD and who honored his name. ¹⁷They shall be mine,” says the LORD of Armies, “my own possession in the day that I make. I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him.