Nehemiah 9

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

2Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood and confessed their sins and the wrongdoing of their ancestors.

3They stood up in their places and read from the book of the law of Yahweh their God for a fourth of the day, and for another fourth of the day they confessed and worshiped Yahweh their God.

4On the platform of the Levites stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani, 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 and bless Yahweh your God from everlasting to everlasting. May they bless your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.

6You are Yahweh, you alone. 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. You give life to all of them, and the host of heaven worships you.

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

8You found his heart faithful before you, and you made a covenant 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 offspring. And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous.

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

10You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for you knew how arrogantly they had treated our ancestors. You made a name for yourself that lasts to this day.

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

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

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

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

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

16But they, our ancestors, acted arrogantly. They stiffened their necks and did not listen to your commandments.

17They refused to listen, and they did not remember the wonders you had done among them. They stiffened their necks and in their rebellion appointed a leader to go back to their slavery. But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and you did not abandon them.

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

19you in your great compassion did not abandon them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud did not leave them by day, to lead them on the way, nor did the pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way they were to go.

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

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

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

23You made their descendants as many as the stars of heaven, and you brought them into the land that you had told their ancestors to go in and possess.

24So the descendants went in and took possession of the land. You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and you gave them into their hands, along with their kings and the peoples of the land, to do with them as they pleased.

25They 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. So they ate and were filled and grew fat, and they delighted themselves in your great goodness.

26But they were disobedient and rebelled against you. They threw your law behind their backs. They killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed terrible blasphemies.

27So you gave them into the hands of their enemies, who made them suffer. But in the time of their suffering they cried out to you, and you heard from heaven. In your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hands of their enemies.

28But as soon as they had rest, they went back to doing evil in your sight, so you abandoned them to the hands of their enemies, who ruled over them. When they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in your compassion you rescued them many times.

29You warned them in order to turn them back to your law, but they acted arrogantly and did not listen to your commandments. They sinned against your ordinances, by which anyone who obeys them will live. They turned a stubborn shoulder, stiffened their necks, and would not listen.

30For many years you were patient with them. You warned them by your Spirit through your prophets, but they would not pay attention. So you gave them into the hands of the peoples of the lands.

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

32Now therefore, our God, the great, mighty, and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, do not let all this hardship seem small in your sight, the hardship that has come on us, on our kings, our officials, our priests, our prophets, our ancestors, and all your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until this day.

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

34Our kings, our officials, our priests, and our ancestors did not keep your law or pay attention to your commandments and the warnings you gave them.

35Even in their own kingdom, with the great goodness you gave them, and in the wide and fertile land you set before them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil deeds.

36Look, we are slaves today, slaves in the land you gave our ancestors so that they could eat its fruit and its good things.

37Its rich harvest goes to the kings 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.”

38Because of all this we are making a firm agreement and putting it in writing, and our officials, our Levites, and our priests are putting their seals on it.