Repent therefore of this, your wickedness, and ask God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    Repent therefore of this, your wickedness, and ask God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.

  • TYNDALE Tyndale New Testament (1534)

    Repent therfore of this thy wickednes and praye God that the thought of thyne hert maye be forgeven the.

  • GNV Geneva Bible (1599)

    Repent therefore of this thy wickednes, and pray God, that if it be possible, the thought of thine heart may be forgiuen thee.

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Cross-references (22)

Passages linked to Acts 8:22 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • 2 Timothy 2:25-26 in gentleness correcting those who oppose him: perhaps God may give them repentance leading to a full knowledge of the truth, and they may recover themselves out of the devil’s snare, having been taken captive by him to his will.
  • Daniel 4:27 Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you, and break off your sins by righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps there may be a lengthening of your tranquility.”
  • Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
  • Matthew 7:7-8 “Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened.
  • Luke 11:9-13 “I tell you, keep asking, and it will be given you. Keep seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened. “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? Or if he asks for an egg, he won’t give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”
  • Acts 9:11 The Lord said to him, “Arise, and go to the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judah for one named Saul, a man of Tarsus. For behold, he is praying,
  • Acts 17:30 The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent,
  • Romans 2:4 Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
  • Deuteronomy 4:29-30 But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God, and you shall find him when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in oppression, and all these things have come on you, in the latter days you shall return to Yahweh your God and listen to his voice.
  • Isaiah 55:6-7 Seek Yahweh while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him, to our God, for he will freely pardon.
  • Jonah 3:9 Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?”
  • Acts 2:38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
  • Acts 3:19 “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord,
  • Acts 8:20 But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!
  • Revelation 2:21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.
  • 1 Kings 8:47-48 yet if they repent in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of those who carried them captive, saying, ‘We have sinned, and have done perversely; we have dealt wickedly;’ if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name;
  • 2 Chronicles 33:12-13 When he was in distress, he begged Yahweh his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him; and he was entreated by him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that Yahweh was God.
  • Joel 2:13-14 Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to Yahweh, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meal offering and a drink offering to Yahweh, your God.
  • Amos 5:6 Seek Yahweh, and you will live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel.
  • Amos 5:15 Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”
  • Jonah 1:6 So the ship master came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God! Maybe your God will notice us, so that we won’t perish.”
  • Revelation 3:17-18 Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;’ and don’t know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked; I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich; and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

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Explain this verse (17 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 22. Repent, therefore. Whereas he exhorteth him unto repentance…

22. Repent, therefore. Whereas he exhorteth him unto repentance and prayer, he putteth him in some hope of pardon thereby; for no man shall ever be touched with any desire of repentance, save only he which shall believe that God will have mercy upon him; on the other side, despair will always carry men headlong unto boldness. Furthermore, the Scripture teacheth that God is not called upon aright save only by faith. Therefore, we see how Peter raiseth up Simon now unto hope of salvation, whom he had thrown down before with the cruel lightnings and thunderbolts of words; and yet Simon’s sin was no small sin. But, if it could be, we ought to pluck men even out of hell.

Therefore, until such time as even the most wicked men do by manifest signs betray themselves to be reprobates, no one of them is to be handled so sharply but that remission of sins is to be set before him. Yea, we must so deal with those for whom sharp chiding is profitable, by reason of their hardness and stubbornness, that we throw them down with one hand, and set them on foot with the other; for the Spirit of God doth not suffer us to accurse them But Peter seemeth to bring him into some fear and doubt, when he saith, if peradventure. And the Papists go about to prove by this place and such like, that we must pray with doubtful minds; because men may unadvisedly promise themselves certain success in their petitions. But we may readily answer them; for the word ει αρα signifieth as much as if a man should say, If by any means thou must obtain pardon of God. Peter useth this word, not that he may leave Simon’s mind in a perplexity, but that he may the more prick him forward to be earnest in prayer. For the very difficulty doth not a little serve to stir us up; because when we see the thing at hand, we are too careless and sluggish. Therefore Peter doth not terrify Simon, that he may overthrow or trouble all hope of obtaining in his heart, but putting him in sure hope if he shall crave pardon humbly and from his heart, he telleth him only that pardon is hard to be gotten, by reason of the greatness of his offense, to the end he may provoke him unto ferventness; for it is requisite that we may be lightened by faith when we go unto God, yea, that she be the mother of prayer.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain We must hope well even of the vilest sinners,…
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 22 Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The only remedy and help in his (otherwise) desperate…
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain Observe here, 1. The odious character wherewith sin in…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain For I perceive that thou art in the gall…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Repent - if perhaps the thought of thy heart…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 22. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness] St.…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Act 8:22-23. Repent, therefore, of this thy wickedness —…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Repent, therefore - Here we may remark:
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain That perhaps this thought of thy heart may be…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Repent . . . pray . . . if…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 22. Repent therefore, &c.] On this condition not only…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (22) Repent therefore of this thy wickedness.—The stern words…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The Lord for God, A.V. and T.R.; thy for…
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain 22. “Repent therefore from this sin of thine, and…
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain See notes on verse 20

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