How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?

Even though I am afflicted and needy,
Still the Lord takes thought and is mindful of me.
You are my help and my rescuer.
O my God, do not delay.

I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched;
My eyes fail while I wait [with confident expectation] for my God.

My eyes fail [with longing, watching] for [the fulfillment of] Your promise,
Saying, “When will You comfort me?”

So [even] when He heard that Lazarus was sick, He stayed in the same place two more days.

Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.

So wait patiently, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits [expectantly] for the precious harvest from the land, being patient about it, until it receives the early and late rains.

The Lord does not delay [as though He were unable to act] and is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is [extraordinarily] patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

Then in the fourth generation your descendants shall return here [to Canaan, the land of promise], for the wickedness and guilt of the Amorites is not yet complete (finished).”

However, I will not do it in your lifetime, for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son (Rehoboam).

“Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the evil (catastrophe) in his lifetime, but in his son’s days I will bring evil upon his house.”

But the Lord was gracious to them and had compassion on them and turned toward them for the sake of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He was unwilling to destroy them, and did not cast them from His presence until now.

Because the sentence against an evil act is not executed quickly, the hearts of the sons of men are fully set to do evil.

“For the sake of My Name I refrain from My wrath,
And for My praise I restrain Myself from you,
So that I do not cut you off.

so he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and have found none. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground [depleting the soil and blocking the sunlight]?’

But he replied to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, [just] one more year until I dig around it and put in fertilizer;

and if it bears fruit after this, fine; but if not, cut it down.’”

who once were disobedient, when the great patience of God was waiting in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons [Noah’s family], were brought safely through the water.