Now in the
twenty and fourth day of this month the children
of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with
sackclothes, and earth upon them.
02 And the seed of Israel separated themselves
from all strangers, and stood and confessed their
sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.
03 And they stood up in their place, and read in
the book of the law of the Lord their God one
fourth part of the day; and another fourth part
they confessed, and worshipped the Lord their
God.
04 Then stood up upon the stairs, of the Levites,
Jeshua, and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni,
Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani, and cried with a
loud voice unto the Lord their God.
05 Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani,
Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and
Pethahiah, said, Stand up and bless the Lord your
God for ever and ever: and blessed be thy
glorious name, which is exalted above all
blessing and praise.
06 Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast
made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all
their host, the earth, and all things that are
therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and
thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven
worshippeth thee.
07 Thou art the Lord the God, who didst choose
Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the
Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham;
08 And foundest his heart faithful before thee,
and madest a covenant with him to give the land
of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites,
and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the
Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his seed, and
hast performed thy words; for thou art righteous:
09 And didst see the affliction of our fathers in
Egypt, and heardest their cry by the Red sea;
10 And shewedst signs and wonders upon Pharaoh,
and on all his servants, and on all the people of
his land: for thou knewest that they dealt
proudly against them. So didst thou get thee a
name, as it is this day.
11 And thou didst divide the sea before them, so
that they went through the midst of the sea on
the dry land; and their persecutors thou threwest
into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty
waters.
12 Moreover thou leddest them in the day by a
cloudy pillar; and in the night by a pillar of
fire, to give them light in the way wherein they
should go.
13 Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and
spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them
right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and
commandments:
14 And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath,
and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and
laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant:
15 And gavest them bread from heaven for their
hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out
of the rock for their thirst, and promisedst them
that they should go in to possess the land which
thou hadst sworn to give them.
16 But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and
hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy
commandments,
17 And refused to obey, neither were mindful of
thy wonders that thou didst among them; but
hardened their necks, and in their rebellion
appointed a captain to return to their bondage:
but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and
merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness,
and forsookest them not.
18 Yea, when they had made them a molten calf,
and said, This is thy God that brought thee up
out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations;
19 Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest
them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the
cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them
in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night,
to shew them light, and the way wherein they
should go.
20 Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct
them, and withheldest not thy manna from their
mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst.
21 Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in
the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing;
their clothes waxed not old, and their feet
swelled not.
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22 Moreover thou gavest them kingdoms and
nations, and didst divide them into corners: so
they possessed the land of Sihon, and the land of
the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of
Bashan.
23 Their children also multipliedst thou as the
stars of heaven, and broughtest them into the
land, concerning which thou hadst promised to
their fathers, that they should go in to possess
it.
24 So the children went in and possessed the
land, and thou subduedst before them the
inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and
gavest them into their hands, with their kings,
and the people of the land, that they might do
with them as they would.
25 And they took strong cities, and a fat land,
and possessed houses full of all goods, wells
digged, vineyards, and oliveyards, and fruit
trees in abundance: so they did eat, and were
filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves
in thy great goodness.
26 Nevertheless they were disobedient, and
rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind
their backs, and slew thy prophets which
testified against them to turn them to thee, and
they wrought great provocations.
27 Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand
of their enemies, who vexed them: and in the time
of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou
heardest them from heaven; and according to thy
manifold mercies thou gavest them saviours, who
saved them out of the hand of their enemies.
28 But after they had rest, they did evil again
before thee: therefore leftest thou them in the
land of their enemies, so that they had the
dominion over them: yet when they returned, and
cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven;
and many times didst thou deliver them according
to thy mercies;
29 And testifiedst against them, that thou
mightest bring them again unto thy law: yet they
dealt proudly, and hearkened not unto thy
commandments, but sinned against thy judgments,
(which if a man do, he shall live in them;) and
withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck,
and would not hear.
30 Yet many years didst thou forbear them, and
testifiedst against them by thy spirit in thy
prophets: yet would they not give ear: therefore
gavest thou them into the hand of the people of
the lands.
31 Nevertheless for thy great mercies' sake thou
didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them;
for thou art a gracious and merciful God.
32 Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty,
and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and
mercy, let not all the trouble seem little before
thee, that hath come upon us, on our kings, on
our princes, and on our priests, and on our
prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy
people, since the time of the kings of Assyria
unto this day.
33 Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought
upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have
done wickedly:
34 Neither have our kings, our princes, our
priests, nor our fathers, kept thy law, nor
hearkened unto thy commandments and thy
testimonies, wherewith thou didst testify against
them.
35 For they have not served thee in their
kingdom, and in thy great goodness that thou
gavest them, and in the large and fat land which
thou gavest before them, neither turned they from
their wicked works.
36 Behold, we are servants this day, and for the
land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the
fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we
are servants in it:
37 And it yieldeth much increase unto the kings
whom thou hast set over us because of our sins:
also they have dominion over our bodies, and over
our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in
great distress.
38 And because of all this we make a sure
covenant, and write it; and our princes, Levites,
and priests, seal unto it.
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