Bible Verses About God: Longsuffering of, abused

`And when they have rest, they turn back to do evil before Thee, and Thou dost leave them in the hand of their enemies, and they rule over them; and they turn back, and call Thee, and Thou from the heavens dost hear, and dost deliver them, according to Thy mercies, many times,

and dost testify against them, to bring them back unto Thy law; and they--they have acted proudly, and have not hearkened to Thy commands, and against Thy judgments have sinned, --which man doth and hath lived in them--and they give a refractory shoulder, and their neck have hardened, and have not hearkened.

`And Thou drawest over them many years, and testifiest against them by Thy Spirit, by the hand of Thy prophets, and they have not given ear, and Thou dost give them into the hand of peoples of the lands,

and in Thine abundant mercies Thou hast not made them a consumption, nor hast forsaken them; for a God, gracious and merciful, art Thou.

Because I have called, and ye refuse, I stretched out my hand, and none is attending,

And ye slight all my counsel, And my reproof ye have not desired.

I also in your calamity do laugh, I deride when your fear cometh,

When your fear cometh as destruction, And your calamity as a hurricane doth come, When on you come adversity and distress.

`And, if that evil servant may say in his heart, My Lord doth delay to come,

and may begin to beat the fellow-servants, and to eat and to drink with the drunken,

the lord of that servant will arrive in a day when he doth not expect, and in an hour of which he doth not know,

and will cut him off, and his portion with the hypocrites will appoint; there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of the teeth.

And he spake this simile: `A certain one had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit in it, and he did not find;

and he said unto the vine-dresser, Lo, three years I come seeking fruit in this fig-tree, and do not find, cut it off, why also the ground doth it render useless?

`And he answering saith to him, Sir, suffer it also this year, till that I may dig about it, and cast in dung;

and if indeed it may bear fruit--;and if not so, thereafter thou shalt cut it off.'