The inspired words of the prophet Solomon declare God would always listen from heaven for the repentant cries of His scattered people and bring them back to the land after scattering them for disobedience.
You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and you will not find a single instance where God gathered Israel back to the land after scattering them for disobedience without them first having repented.
His promises of deliverance regarding the Babylonian captivity are not an exception -- we know for a fact the Babylonian captivity not only permanently cured Israel of their idolatry, but led to the institution of hundreds of (anti-idolatry) laws meant to keep the people from ever falling under the spell of idolatry again. These laws, unfortunately, eventually became for the people the focus and the means for obtaining salvation rather than the representative lamb offered morning and evening which pointed to the Messiah.
ISRAEL HAS NEVER REPENTED OF KILLING JESUS CHRIST.
So, why do Christians disregard God's own divinely established principle for "scattering and gathering" and insist He had a hand in the events of 1948 when it can be shown that the occult U.N., the occult U.S. "Deep State", and the occult Papacy were behind them? Their disregard for this divine principle has led them to wrongly attribute Biblical promises to those who today call Jesus "son of a whore" and "the great imposter" rather than to whom God's promises pertain in our day: the Church, which is "Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise" because it is the Church which belongs to Christ, not impenitent pseudo-Jewish descendants of the pagan Khazarian Empire who don't have a drop of Semitic blood in them.
Some of them did repent and were saved into the church who heard the gospel after
“Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.”
Acts 2:22-24 KJV
“Therefore
let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart,
and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren,
what shall we do?
Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
For the promise is
unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
Then
they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”
Acts 2:36-39, 41, 47
your correct about repentance it’s the first word Jesus preached in his ministry but repenting doesn’t save us unless we also believe the gospel and be renewed in the spirit of our minds about judgement
Israel in large part didn’t recognize Jesus because they were so focused on Moses law and its details . Sometimes looking to closely at something causes us to miss the overall
Message
they had learned the ordinances and statements of the law , but they hadn’t heard the witness of Christ in it things like this
“For
Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me;
him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it
shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.
...Unto you first God, having
raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.”
Acts 3:22-23, 26
they hadn’t heard that Christ was coming to set things straight in regards to Gods word of requirement Moses had already told them another was coming with more authority than himself and they needed to hear that one that was coming
repentance is a decision and the walk is a lifetime . When we accept repentance as a reality of Gods word , knowing who Jesus is the actions of repentance will follow from belief . They actually hadn’t done anything to repent they just heard the truth and believed and then they were baptized
repentance is when it pricked thier heart to know they had crucified the messiah they were made aware of what they had done so they experienced godly sorrow that leads to repentance
“For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”
2 Corinthians 7:10 KJV
when Peter told them who Jesus was and that he rose up they realized they had done a great sin this realization is where repentance lives they accepted the truth and it pushed them into repenting and being baptized