Nehemiah 9

¹ On the twenty-fourth day of this month, the people of Israel assembled with fasting, wearing sackcloth, and with dust on their heads.

² Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.

³ They stood in their places and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day, and for another quarter they confessed and worshiped the LORD their God.

⁴ On the stairs of the Levites stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Kenani, and they cried out with a loud voice to the LORD their God.

⁵ Then the Levites—Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah—said: "Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting! Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.

⁶ You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, the highest heavens with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them, and the host of heaven worships you.

⁷ You are the LORD God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans, and gave him the name Abraham.

⁸ You found his heart faithful before you, and you made a covenant with him to give to his offspring the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites, and Girgashites. And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous.

⁹ You saw the suffering of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea.

¹⁰ You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his officials, and against all the people of his land, for you knew that they acted arrogantly against our fathers. You made a name for yourself that endures to this day.

¹¹ You divided the sea before them so that they passed through on dry ground, and you cast their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters.

¹² By a pillar of cloud you led them by day, and by a pillar of fire by night, to light the way they were to travel.

¹³ You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven. You gave them just ordinances, true laws, and good statutes and commands.

¹⁴ You made known to them your holy Sabbath and gave them commands, statutes, and a law through your servant Moses.

¹⁵ You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought water from the rock for their thirst. You told them to go in and possess the land you had sworn to give them.

¹⁶ But they and our fathers acted arrogantly. They stiffened their necks and did not obey your commands.

¹⁷ They refused to listen and did not remember your wonders that you performed among them. They stiffened their necks and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in faithful love, and you did not forsake them.

¹⁸ Even when they made for themselves a golden calf and said, 'This is your god who brought you up out of Egypt,' and committed great blasphemies,

¹⁹ you in your great compassion did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud did not depart from over them by day, to lead them on their way, nor the pillar of fire by night, to light for them the path they should travel.

²⁰ You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst.

²¹ For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

²² You gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted them as a boundary. They took possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan.

²³ You multiplied their children as the stars of heaven and brought them into the land you had told their fathers to enter and possess.

²⁴ So the descendants went in and possessed the land. You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands—their kings and the peoples of the land—to do with them as they wished.

²⁵ They captured fortified cities and fertile land. They took possession of houses full of all good things, cisterns already dug, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. They ate, were filled, grew fat, and delighted themselves in your great goodness.

²⁶ But they were disobedient and rebelled against you. They cast your law behind their backs and killed your prophets who warned them to turn them back to you. They committed great blasphemies.

²⁷ So you gave them into the hands of their enemies, who oppressed them. In the time of their distress they cried out to you, and you heard from heaven. In your great compassion you gave them deliverers who saved them from the hands of their enemies.

²⁸ But when they had rest, they did evil again before you. So you abandoned them to the hands of their enemies, who ruled over them. Yet when they turned and cried out to you, you heard from heaven and delivered them many times in your compassion.

²⁹ You warned them to turn back to your law, but they acted arrogantly and did not obey your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, by which a person will live if he does them. They turned a stubborn shoulder, stiffened their necks, and would not listen.

³⁰ You were patient with them for many years and warned them by your Spirit through your prophets, yet they would not listen. So you gave them into the hands of the peoples of the lands.

³¹ But in your great compassion you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and compassionate God.

³² Now therefore, our God—the great, mighty, and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of faithful love—do not let all this hardship seem small before you: all that has come upon us, our kings, our officials, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until today.

³³ You have been just in all that has come upon us, for you have acted faithfully while we have acted wickedly.

³⁴ Our kings, our officials, our priests, and our fathers did not keep your law or pay attention to your commands and warnings that you gave them.

³⁵ Even in their own kingdom, enjoying your great goodness that you gave them, in the spacious and fertile land you set before them, they did not serve you or turn from their wicked deeds.

³⁶ Here we are today, slaves—slaves in the land you gave our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good things.

³⁷ Its abundant harvest goes to the kings you have set over us because of our sins. They rule over our bodies and our livestock as they please, and we are in great distress.

³⁸ Because of all this, we are making a firm agreement in writing. On the sealed document are the names of our officials, our Levites, and our priests."