Nehemiah 9

1On the twenty-fourth day of this month, the sons of Israel assembled with fasting, in sackcloth, and with dirt on them.

2Then the offspring of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.

3And they stood in their place, and they read from the Book of the Law of Yahweh their God for a fourth of the day; and for another fourth they were confessing and bowing down to Yahweh their God.

4Then Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Kenani stood on the platform of the Levites, and they cried out with a loud voice to Yahweh their God.

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

6You alone are Yahweh. You made the heavens, the highest heavens and all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them alive, and the host of heaven bows down to you.

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

8You found his heart faithful before you, and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite—to give it to his offspring. And you have fulfilled your words, for you are righteous.

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

10You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his servants, and against all the people of his land, for you knew that they acted presumptuously against them. So you made a name for yourself, as it is to this day.

11You split the sea before them, and they passed through the midst of the sea on dry ground; and you threw their pursuers into the depths like a stone in mighty waters.

12By a pillar of cloud you led them by day, and by a pillar of fire by night to give them light on the way in which they should go.

13You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven, and you gave them upright judgments, true laws, good statutes and commandments.

14You made your holy Sabbath known to them, and you commanded them commandments and statutes and a law by the hand of Moses your servant.

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

16But they, our fathers, acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck, and did not listen to your commandments.

17But they refused to listen and did not remember your wonders that you had done among them. They stiffened their necks and, in their rebellion, appointed a leader to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abundant in steadfast love, and you did not forsake them.

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

19But you, in your abundant mercies, did not abandon them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud did not depart from above them by day, to lead them on the way, nor the pillar of fire by night, to give them light and the way in which they should go.

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

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

22You gave them kingdoms and peoples, and allotted them to every corner. So they took possession of the land of Sihon, that is, the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.

23You multiplied their children like the stars of the heavens, and you brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess.

24So the sons came in and took possession of the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hand, both their kings and the peoples of the land, to do with them according to their will.

25They captured fortified cities and fertile land, and took possession of houses full of every good thing, hewn cisterns, vineyards, olive trees, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and grew fat, and they delighted themselves in your great goodness.

26But they acted presumptuously and rebelled against you, and they cast your law behind their backs. They killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to bring them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies.

27So you gave them into the hand of their adversaries, who oppressed them. But in the time of their distress they cried out to you, and you heard from heaven; and according to your abundant mercies you gave them deliverers, who saved them from the hand of their adversaries.

28But when they had rest, they again did evil before you; so you left them in the power of their enemies, who ruled over them. Then they returned and cried out to you, and from heaven you heard and delivered them many times according to your mercies.

29You warned them in order to bring them back to your law, but they acted presumptuously and did not listen to your commandments; they sinned against your judgments, by which a man shall live if he does them. They gave a stubborn shoulder, stiffened their neck, and would not listen.

30For many years you were patient with them and testified against them by your Spirit through your prophets, but they would not listen. So you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.

31But in your abundant mercies you did not make an end of them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and compassionate God.

32And now, our God—the great, mighty, and fearsome God, who keeps the covenant and steadfast love—do not let all the hardship that has come upon us seem small before you: upon our kings, our officials, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until this day.

33Yet you are righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have acted faithfully, but we have acted wickedly.

34Even our kings, our officials, our priests, and our fathers did not keep your law, and they did not listen to your commandments and your testimonies with which you warned them.

35Even in their kingdom, and amid your great goodness that you gave them, and in the broad and fertile land that you set before them, they did not serve you and did not turn from their evil deeds.

36Look, today we are servants; and in the land that you gave to our fathers to eat its fruit and its good things, look, we are servants on it.

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