But God was merciful to his people. He forgave their sin and did not destroy them. Many times he held back his anger and restrained his fury.

He remembered that they were only mortal beings, like a wind that blows by and is gone.

Will you be angry with us forever? Will your anger never cease?

He does not keep on rebuking; he is not angry forever.

As high as the sky is above the earth, so great is his love for those who honor him.

As a father is kind to his children, so the LORD is kind to those who honor him.

As for us, our life is like grass. We grow and flourish like a wild flower;

Correct your people, LORD, but do not be too hard on us or punish us when you are angry; that would be the end of us.

There is no other god like you, O LORD; you forgive the sins of your people who have survived. You do not stay angry forever, but you take pleasure in showing us your constant love.

God created the heavens and stretched them out; he fashioned the earth and all that lives there; he gave life and breath to all its people. And now the LORD God says to his servant,

But Moses and Aaron bowed down with their faces to the ground and said, "O God, you are the source of all life. When one of us sins, do you become angry with the whole community?"

If God took back the breath of life,

then everyone living would die and turn into dust again.

Our bodies will return to the dust of the earth, and the breath of life will go back to God, who gave it to us.

So King Zedekiah promised me in secret, "I swear by the living God, the God who gave us life, that I will not put you to death or hand you over to the men who want to kill you."

This is a message about Israel from the LORD, the LORD who spread out the skies, created the earth, and gave life to man. He says,

In the case of our human fathers, they punished us and we respected them. How much more, then, should we submit to our spiritual Father and live!