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Nehemiah 9

9 On the twenty-fourth day of that month the Israelites gathered, fasting and in sackcloth, with earth thrown on their heads; 2 and the race of Israel separated themselves from all the foreigners, and stood up to confess their sins and the iniquities of their fathers; 3 they rose in their place and read from the book of the law of the Eternal their God, one quarter of the day, while during the other quarter of the day they made their confession and fell down before the Eternal their God.

4 On the stairs of the Levites stood Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani, calling aloud to the Eternal their God. 5 And the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, and Pethahiah said:

“Rise and bless the Eternal your God, for ever and ever, saying, ‘Blessed be thy glorious name, high above all blessing and praise! 6 Thou alone art the Eternal; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, and all their host, the earth and all things in it, the seas and all in them, and thou art preserving them all; 7 the host of heaven worships thee. Thou alone art the Eternal, the God who didst choose Abram and didst bring him from Ur of the Chaldeans, giving him the name of Abraham; 8 thou didst find his heart faithful before thee, and didst make a compact with him, to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, and the Girgashites--to give it to his race. Thou hast done as thou hast promised, for thou art true. 9 Thou didst note the distress of our fathers in Egypt, thou didst listen to their cry at the Reed Sea, 10 thou didst do signal deeds on Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for thou knewest how haughtily they treated our fathers. So didst thou win for thyself honour to this day. 11 Thou didst divide the sea before them, till they went through the middle of the sea on dry ground, and their pursuers thou didst throw into the depths, like a stone into the mighty waters. 12 By a column of cloud thou didst lead them by day, and by a column of fire by night, to give them light on the road they were to take. 13 Thou camest down upon mount Sinai, speaking to them out of heaven and giving them just decrees and true laws, good statutes and commands; 14 thou didst reveal to them thy sacred sabbath, and didst lay down for them commands and statutes and instructions, by the hand of Moses thy servant. 15 Thou gavest them bread from heaven when they were hungry, and didst bring water out of the rock for them when they were thirsty. Thou didst order that they were to enter and take possession of the land which thou hadst sworn to give them. 16 But they and our fathers were insolent and obstinate, they would not listen to thy commands and refused to obey; 17 thy wonderful deeds with them they forgot; they were obstinate, and they appointed one to lead them back to their bondage in Egypt. Yet thou art a God ready to pardon, kind and pitiful, slow to be angry and rich in mercy; thou didst not abandon them. 18 Even when they made a metal calf and said, “This is your god, who brought you up from Egypt,” even when they acted most blasphemously, 19 thou in thy manifold mercy didst not abandon them in the desert; the column of cloud never left them by day, nor the column of fire by night, to give them light and show them the road they were to take; 20 thy good spirit thou gavest to instruct them, thou didst not withhold thy manna from their mouth, thou gavest them water when they were thirsty. 21 For forty years thou didst support them in the desert, and they lacked for nothing; their clothes never grew old, and their feet never blistered. 22 Thou gavest them kingdoms and peoples, allotting them every corner of the land, till they possessed the land of Sihon king of Hesh- bon and the land of Og king of Bashan. 23 Their children thou didst multiply like the stars of heaven, and thou didst bring them into the land which thou hadst promised their fathers that they would enter and possess it. 24 So the children went in and took possession of the land; thou didst subdue the inhabitants of the land before them, even the Canaanites, delivering them into their hands, that they might do as they pleased with these kings and peoples of the land. 25 They captured fortified towns and a rich country, they seized houses full of all goods, cisterns already hewed out, vineyards, oliveyards, and plenty of fruit-trees; they ate their fill, they throve, they revelled in thy great goodness. 26 Then they disobeyed and rebelled against thee, casting thy law behind their backs, killing thy prophets who warned them in order to turn them back to thyself, and acting most blasphemously. 27 So thou didst hand them over to their foes, who tormented them; and in the hour of their distress, when they cried to thee, thou didst hear from heaven, and in thy manifold mercy thou gavest them saviours to save them from the grasp of their foes. 28 And then, after their relief, they did evil again in thy sight; so thou didst abandon them to their foes, who ruled over them. Yet, when they returned to thee with a cry, thou didst hear from heaven, many a time, rescuing them in thy mercy 29 and warning them, in order to bring them back to thy law. But they were insolent, they would not listen to thy commands, they sinned against thy decrees (by obedience to which a man shall live), they were stubborn and obstinate and would not listen. 30 Many a year didst thou bear with them, warning them by thy spirit through thy prophets, but they would not attend; so thou didst hand them over to the peoples of this land. 31 Yet in thy manifold mercy thou didst not make an end of them nor abandon them, for thou art a kind and pitiful God. 32 And now, our God, the great, the mighty, the awful God, keeping thy compact of kindness, let not all this hardship that has befallen us seem a little thing to thee, this hardship of our kings, our nobles, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all thy people from the days of the kings of Assyria to this day! 33 Whatever has befallen us, thou art just, for thou hast been true; but we have acted wickedly, 34 neither our kings nor our nobles nor our priests nor our fathers have obeyed thy law, nor listened to thy commands and to the warnings of thy witness; 35 they have not served thee in their kingdom or amid the great goodness which thou didst give them in the large and rich land which thou didst set before them, nor have they turned from their wicked deeds. 36 Here we are, this day, in slavery; here we are, slaves in the very land thou gavest to our fathers to enjoy the food and good of it; 37 it produces richly for the benefit of kings whom thou hast set over us because we have sinned; they are masters of our bodies and they do as they please with our cattle, and we are in great distress.’

38 “. . . In view of all this we pledge our faith, and sign our names to it; our nobles, our Le- vites, and our priests endorse it.”

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