EXOD1039 The Jewish tradition is confident that God will forgive both individual Israelites and the People Israel as a whole. In the Torah, God Himself proclaims that He “forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin,” and the Rabbis maintained that God's forgiveness exceeds kept his wrath five hundred- fold. (Exodus 34:7 and Tosefta, Sotah 1:4. Compare M.T. Laws of Repentance 1:3-4, 7:1-8, qualified, however, in 3:6ff). There are several reasons why God forgives. God is by nature a loving Father who, like any good parent, punishes transgression when necessary to correct our ways but who always hopes that we will return to Him so that He can instead forgive. (That God will discipline us: Deuteronomy 8:5. That God hopes that we will return to Him so that He can forgive: for example, Jeremiah 3:14, 22). After the Flood, God made a covenant with all children of Noah -- and, indeed, with all living creatures -- not to destroy the world again, however angry He becomes. (Genesis 9:8-17). Furthermore, as an expression of His special love for Israel, He has made a distinct covenant with Israel that obligates Him to forgive and sustain it even after fiercely punishing it for multiple and egregious transgression. (Leviticus 26:44-5 and Psalms 106:45). God remembers the merit of the Patriarchs; the relationship He had with them, and the promises He made them prompt Him to forgive their descendants. (God’s relationship with the Patriarchs as a motive for forgiveness: Deuteronomy 9:27. God’s promises to the Patriarchs as a motive for forgiveness: Exodus 32:13). Because failure to forgive Israel may lead others to underestimate the extent of God's power and goodness, God forgives Israel also to preserve and enhance His own reputation among the nations. (Exodus 32:12, Numbers 14:13-20, Deuteronomy 32:26-7, and Psalms 79:8-9). God forgives, however, only when human beings sincerely seek to make amends in both mind and deed. It is not enough to hope and pray for pardon or to perform the rituals associated with it (animal sacrifices, weeping, fasting, rending one’s clothes, donning sackcloth and ashes, etc.); people must humble themselves, acknowledge their wrongs, and resolve to depart from sin. (For example, 1 Kings 21:27-9, Isaiah 1:10-20 and 29:13, and Joel 2:13). Moreover, inner contrition must be followed by the outward acts of ceasing to do evil and then, in its place, doing good. (For example, Isaiah 1:15-7, 33:14-5, 58:3ff; Jeremiah 7:3ff, 26:13, and Amos 5:14-5). God’s forgiveness, however extensive, only encompasses the sins a person commits directly against Him; injuries to another human being are not forgiven, according to the Rabbis, until the victim has personally forgiven the perpetrator -- hence the custom of seeking forgiveness from those one may have wronged in the days before the Day of Atonement, without which proper atonement to God cannot be made. (M. Yoma 8:9). (Continued at [[GEN1098]] Genesis 20:17 prayed DORFFDRAG 189-90)
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