Nehemiah 9 On the twenty-fourth day of this same month, the Israelites gathered together while fasting, wearing sackcloth, and covering themselves with dust.

VIN⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ On the twenty-fourth day of this same month, the Israelites gathered together while fasting, wearing sackcloth, and covering themselves with dust. ² The seed of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers. ³ They stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the LORD their God for a fourth part of the day, and for a fourth they were confessing and worshiping the LORD their God. ⁴ Then stood upon the stairs, of the Levites, Jeshua, and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani, and cried 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 alone have made the heavens, the heavens of the heavens, and all of their army, the earth and all that is in it, the waters and all that is in them. You give life to all of them, and the army of the heavens worship you. ⁷ You are the LORD, the God who chose Abram and brought him from Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham. ⁸ and foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest a covenant with him to give unto his seed the land of the Cananites, Hittites, Amorites, Perezites, Jebusites, and Girgashites - and hast made good thy words: for thou art righteous, ⁹ You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry by the Red Sea. ¹⁰ and showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, and against all his servants, and against all the people of his land; for you knew that they dealt proudly against them, and made a name for yourself, as it is this day. ¹¹ And you divided the sea before them, and they passed through the sea on dry ground, but their pursuers you threw into the depths like a stone into mighty waters. ¹² and you led them by day by a pillar of cloud; and by night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein to go: ¹³ "You came down also on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments, ¹⁴ and made known to them your holy Sabbath, and commanded them commandments, statutes, and a law, by Moses your servant, ¹⁵ and gave them bread from the heavens for their famine; and brought them water from the rock for their thirst; and said to them to go in to possess the land which you lifted your hand to give them. ¹⁶ "But they our ancestors became arrogant and stubborn, refusing to listen to your commands. ¹⁷ They refused to listen and did not remember your wonders that you did among them. They stiffened their neck and in their rebellion determined to return to their slavery. But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abundant in loyal love, so you did not abandon them. ¹⁸ Yes, when they had made themselves a molded calf, and said, 'This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,' and had committed awful blasphemies; ¹⁹ Even then, in your great mercy, you did not give them up in the waste land: the pillar of cloud still went before them by day, guiding them on their way, and the pillar of fire by night, to give them light, and make clear the way they were to go. ²⁰ You gave also your good Spirit to instruct them, and did not withhold your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst. ²¹ Yea, forty years You sustained them in the wilderness. They lacked nothing; their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell. ²² And you gave them kingdoms and nations and allotted them a portion. They took into possession the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan. ²³ You made their children numerous like the stars of the heavens and brought them to the land that you told their ancestors to enter in order to take possession. ²⁴ So the children went in and took possession of the land. You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites; you gave them into their hand, and their kings and the nations of the land to do with them according to their pleasure. ²⁵ They conquered fortified cities and fertile ground, possessing houses filled with all kinds of good things, wells already dug, with vineyards, olive orchards, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate, were satiated, and were well nourished, delighting themselves in your great goodness. ²⁶ "Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against you, and cast your law behind their back, and killed your prophets that testified against them to turn them again to you, and they committed awful blasphemies. ²⁷ So you delivered them into the control of their enemies, who oppressed them. But when they were oppressed, they cried out to you, and you heard from heaven. In your great compassion you gave them deliverers who rescued them from the control of their enemies. ²⁸ But after they had rest, they again did evil before you. Therefore you left them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had the dominion over them. Yet when they returned and cried to you, you heard from heaven and many times you delivered them according to your mercies, ²⁹ You admonished them to return to your law, but they acted arrogantly, and would not listen to your commands. They sinned against your regulations, which if anyone obeys, he will live by them. They turned away, being stubborn and stiff-necked, and they did not listen. ³⁰ You were patient with them for many years, warning them by your Spirit through your prophets. But they would not listen, so you turned them over to the control of people in other lands. ³¹ But for Your great mercies, You did not consume nor forsake them; for You are a gracious and merciful God. ³² "Now therefore, our God, the great, mighty, and awesome God, who keeps the covenant and gracious love, don't let all of the difficulties seem trifling to you, all of hardships that have come upon us, upon our kings, upon our leaders, upon our priests, upon our prophets, upon our ancestors, and upon all of your people from the time of the kings of Assyria until this day. ³³ You are righteous in all that is happening to us, because you have acted faithfully while we have practiced evil. ³⁴ Our kings, our officials, our priests, and our ancestors did not keep your law and did not listen to your commandments and statutes that you declared to them. ³⁵ And in their kingdom and in the greatness you gave to them, and in the wide and fertile land that you gave before them, they did not serve you and did not turn from their evil deeds. ³⁶ Behold, we are slaves today, even the land that You gave to our fathers to eat its fruit and its good, behold, we are slaves in it. ³⁷ But now its abundant produce belongs to the kings whom you placed over us because of our sin. They also have power over our bodies and our herds at their pleasure, and we are in great distress. ³⁸ "Because of all this, we are making a binding agreement, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites, and our priests hereby set their seals upon it."