Amos, the prophet of stern justice, has not yet reached the idea of averting the divine wrath by the return of the sinner.(776) Hosea, the prophet of divine mercy and loving-kindness, in his deep compassion for the unfaithful and backsliding people, became the preacher of repentance as the condition for attaining the divine pardon. “Return, O Israel, unto the Lord thy God; For thou hast stumbled in thine iniquity. Take with you words (of repentance), And return unto the Lord; Say unto Him, “Forgive all iniquity, And accept that which is good; So will we render for bullocks the offering of our lips.’ ”(777) The appeal of Jeremiah is still more vigorous: “Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord.... Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God.... Break up for you a fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.... O Jerusalem, wash thy heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved; How long shall thy baleful thoughts lodge within thee?... Return ye now every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.”(778) Ezekiel, while emphasizing the guilt of the individual, preached repentance still more insistently. “Return ye, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so shall they not be a stumbling-block of iniquity to you. Cast away from you all your transgressions, wherein ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God; wherefore turn yourselves, and live.”(779) The same appeal recurs after the exile in the last prophets, Zechariah(780) and Malachi.(781) The latter says: “Return unto Me, and I shall return unto you.” Likewise the penitential sermon written in a time of great distress, which is ascribed to the prophet Joel, contains the appeal: “Turn ye unto Me with all your heart, And with fasting, and with weeping, and with lamentation; And rend your heart, and not your garments, And turn unto the Lord your God; For He is gracious and compassionate, Long-suffering, and abundant in mercy, And repenteth Him of the evil.”(782) This prophetic view, which demands contrition and craving for God instead of external modes of atonement, is expressed in the penitential Psalms as well,(783) especially in Psalm LI. The idea is expanded further in the parable of the prophet Jonah, which conveys the lesson that even a heathen nation like the people of Nineveh can avert the impending judgment of God by true repentance.(784) From this point of view the whole conception took on a larger aspect, and the entire history of mankind was seen in a new light. The Jewish sages realized that God punishes man only when the expected change of mind and heart fails to come.(785)