Biblical Examples of Confession Prayers by People of Faith
How people of faith in the Bible confessed their sins through prayer
Ezra’s Confession Prayer in Ezra 9:6-15
O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to you, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.
Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.
And now, for a little space grace has been shown from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage.
For we were bondmen; yet our God has not forsaken us in our bondage, but has extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.
And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments, which you have commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, The land, unto which ye go to possess it, is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness.
Now therefore give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth forever: that ye may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.
And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such deliverance as this. Should we again break your commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? Would you not be angry with us till you had consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping?
O LORD God of Israel, you are righteous: for we are left as escapees, as it is this day: behold, we are before you in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before you because of this.
Nahemiah’s Confession Prayer in Nehemiah 1:5-11
I beseech you, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keeps covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments: let your ear now be attentive, and your eyes open, that you may hear the prayer of your servant, which I pray before you now, day and night, for the children of Israel your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against you: both I and my father’s house have sinned.
We have dealt very corruptly against you, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which you commanded your servant Moses.
Remember, I beseech you, the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, if you transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations: but if you turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.
Now these are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power, and by your strong hand.
O Lord, I beg you, let now your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants, who desire to fear your name. And I beg you, prosper your servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.
The Israelite’s Confession Prayer in Nehemiah 9:5-38
Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.
You, even you, are LORD alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and you preserve them all; and the host of heaven worship you.
You are the LORD, the God, who did choose Abram, and brought him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gave him the name of Abraham. And you found his heart faithful before you, and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his seed. And you have performed your words; for you are righteous.
And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry by the Red sea; and showed signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all the people of his land: for you knew that they dealt proudly against them. So you made a name for yourself, as it is this day.
And you divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors you threw into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters.
Moreover, you led them in the day by a cloudy pillar; and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein they should go.
You came down also upon Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes, and commandments. And you made known unto them your holy sabbath.
You commanded them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses your servant: and gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, and brought forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promised them that they should go in to possess the land which you had sworn to give them.
But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to your commandments, and refused to obey, neither were mindful of your wonders that you did among them. But they hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return them to their bondage. But you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsook them not.
Yea, when they had made a molten calf for themselves, and said, This is your God that brought you up out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations. Yet, you in your manifold mercies forsook them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way wherein they should go.
You also gave your good spirit to instruct them, and withheld not your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst.
Yea, forty years did you sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.
Moreover, you gave them kingdoms and nations, and did divide them into corners: so they possessed the land of Sihon, and the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.
You also multiplied their children as the stars of heaven, and brought them into the land, which you had promised to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it.
So the children went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands, with their kings, and the people of the land, that they might do with them as they would.
And they took strong cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all goods, wells dug, vineyards, and oliveyards, and fruit trees in abundance: so they did eat, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in your great goodness.
Nevertheless, they were disobedient, and rebelled against you, and cast your law behind their backs, and slew your prophets who testified against them to turn them to you, and they wrought great provocations.
Therefore, you delivered them into the hand of their enemies, who vexed them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto you, you heard them from heaven; and according to your manifold mercies, you gave them saviors, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies.
But after they had rest, they did evil again before you. Therefore, you left them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had the dominion over them. Yet when they returned and cried unto you, you heard them from heaven. And many times did you deliver them according to your mercies; and testified against them, that you might bring them again unto your law: yet they dealt proudly, and hearkened not unto your commandments, but sinned against your judgments, (which if a man do, he shall live in them;) and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.
Yet many years did you forbear them, and testified against them by your spirit in your prophets. Yet would they not give ear: therefore, you gave them into the hand of the people of the lands.
Nevertheless, for thy great mercies’ sake, you did not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for you are a gracious and merciful God.
Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keeps covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem little before you, that has come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria unto this day.
Howbeit you are just in all that is brought upon us; for you have done right, but we have done wickedly: neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept your law, nor hearkened unto your commandments and your testimonies, wherewith you did testify against them.
For they have not served you in their kingdom, and in your great goodness that you gave them, and in the large and fat land which you gave before them. And they did not turn from their wicked works.
Behold, we are servants this day, and for the land that you gave unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we are servants in it. And it yields much increase unto the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins. And they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.
And because of all this, we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, Levites, and priests, seal unto it.
Job’s Confession Prayer in Job 42:2-6
I know that you can do everything, and that no thought can be withheld from thee.
Who is he that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore, have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
Hear, I pray to you, and I will speak: I will demand of you, and you will cause me to know.
I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye sees you.
Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.