7 Whenever I may speak about uprooting and pulling down and destroying a nation or a kingdom,+ 8 and that nation abandons its wickedness that I spoke against, I will also change my mind concerning* the calamity that I intended to bring against it.+

21 “‘Now if someone wicked turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps my statutes and does what is just and righteous, he will surely keep living. He will not die.+ 22 None of the transgressions that he has committed will be held* against him.+ He will keep living for doing what is righteous.’+

23 “‘Do I take any pleasure at all in the death of a wicked person?’+ declares the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. ‘Do I not prefer that he turn away from his ways and keep living?’+

2 although Jesus himself did no baptizing but his disciples did—