The People Confess Their Sins
1 Now on the twenty-fourth day ofthis month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, in sackcloth,and with dust on their heads.
2 Thenthose of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners; and they stood andconfessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
3 And they stood up in their place andread from the Book of the Law of theLordtheir Godforone–fourth of the day; andforanotherfourth they confessed and worshiped theLordtheir God.
4 Then Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani,andChenani stood on the stairs of the Levites and cried out with a loud voice to theLordtheir God.
5 And the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah,andPethahiah, said:
“Stand upandbless theLordyour God
Forever and ever!
# “Blessed beYour glorious name,
Which is exalted above all blessing and praise!
6 You alonearetheLord;
# You have made heaven,
# The heaven of heavens, withall their host,
The earth and everything on it,
The seas and all that is in them,
# And Youpreserve them all.
The host of heaven worships You.
7 “YouaretheLordGod,
# Who choseAbram,
And brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans,
# And gave him the nameAbraham;
8 You found his heartfaithful before You,
# And made acovenant with him
To give the land of the Canaanites,
The Hittites, the Amorites,
The Perizzites, the Jebusites,
And the Girgashites—
To giveitto his descendants.
# Youhave performed Your words,
For Youarerighteous.
9 “Yousaw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt,
# Andheard their cry by the Red Sea.
10 Youshowed signs and wonders against Pharaoh,
Against all his servants,
And against all the people of his land.
# For You knew that theyacted proudly against them.
# So Youmade a name for Yourself, asitisthis day.
11 And You divided the sea before them,
So that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land;
And their persecutors You threw into the deep,
# As a stone into the mighty waters.
12 Moreover Youled them by day with a cloudy pillar,
And by night with a pillar of fire,
To give them light on the road
Which they should travel.
13 “Youcame down also on Mount Sinai,
And spoke with them from heaven,
# And gave themjust ordinances and true laws,
Good statutes and commandments.
14 You made known to them Yourholy Sabbath,
And commanded them precepts, statutes and laws,
By the hand of Moses Your servant.
15 Yougave them bread from heaven for their hunger,
# Andbrought them water out of the rock for their thirst,
# And told them togo in to possess the land
Which You had sworn to give them.
16 “Butthey and our fathers acted proudly,
# Hardened their necks,
And did not heed Your commandments.
17 They refused to obey,
# Andthey were not mindful of Your wonders
That You did among them.
But they hardened their necks,
And in their rebellion
# They appointeda leader
To return to their bondage.
But YouareGod,
Ready to pardon,
# Gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger,
Abundant in kindness,
And did not forsake them.
18 “Evenwhen they made a molded calf for themselves,
And said, ‘Thisisyour god
That brought you up out of Egypt,’
And worked great provocations,
19 Yet in Yourmanifold mercies
You did not forsake them in the wilderness.
# Thepillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day,
To lead them on the road;
Nor the pillar of fire by night,
To show them light,
And the way they should go.
20 You also gave Yourgood Spirit to instruct them,
# And did not withhold Yourmanna from their mouth,
# And gave themwater for their thirst.
21 Forty years You sustained them in the wilderness;
They lacked nothing;
# Theirclothes did not wear out
And their feet did not swell.
22 “Moreover You gave them kingdoms and nations,
And divided them into districts.
# So they took possession of the land ofSihon,
The land of the king of Heshbon,
And the land of Og king of Bashan.
23 You also multipliedtheir children as the stars of heaven,
And brought them into the land
Which You had told their fathers
To go in and possess.
24 Sothe people went in
And possessed the land;
# You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land,
The Canaanites,
And gave them into their hands,
With their kings
And the people of the land,
That they might do with them as they wished.
25 And they took strong cities and arich land,
# And possessedhouses full of all goods,
Cisternsalreadydug, vineyards, olive groves,
And fruit trees in abundance.
# So they ate and were filled andgrew fat,
# And delighted themselves in Your greatgoodness.
26 “Nevertheless theywere disobedient
And rebelled against You,
# Cast Your law behind their backs
# And killed Yourprophets, who testified against them
To turn them to Yourself;
And they worked great provocations.
27 Therefore You delivered them into the hand of their enemies,
Who oppressed them;
And in the time of their trouble,
When they cried to You,
# Youheard from heaven;
And according to Your abundant mercies
# You gave them deliverers who saved them
From the hand 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 dominion over them;
Yet when they returned and cried out to You,
You heard from heaven;
# Andmany times You delivered them according to Your mercies,
29 And testified against them,
That You might bring them back to Your law.
Yet they acted proudly,
And did not heed Your commandments,
But sinned against Your judgments,
# ‘Which if a man does, he shall live by them.’
And they shrugged their shoulders,
Stiffened their necks,
And would not hear.
30 Yet for many years You had patience with them,
# And testifiedagainst them by Your Spiritin Your prophets.
Yet they would not listen;
# Therefore You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.
31 Nevertheless in Your great mercy
# You did not utterly consume them nor forsake them;
For YouareGod, gracious and merciful.
32 “Now therefore, our God,
# The great, themighty, and awesome God,
Who keeps covenant and mercy:
Do not let all the trouble seem small before You
That has come upon us,
Our kings and our princes,
Our priests and our prophets,
Our fathers and on all Your people,
# From the days of the kings of Assyria until this day.
33 HoweverYouarejust in all that has befallen us;
For You have dealt faithfully,
# Butwe have done wickedly.
34 Neither our kings nor our princes,
Our priests nor our fathers,
Have kept Your law,
Nor heeded Your commandments and Your testimonies,
With which You testified against them.
35 For they havenot served You in their kingdom,
Or in the many goodthingsthat You gave them,
Or in the large and rich land which You set before them;
Nor did they turn from their wicked works.
36 “Hereweare,servants today!
And the land that You gave to our fathers,
To eat its fruit and its bounty,
Here weare,servants in it!
37 Andit yields much increase to the kings
You have set over us,
Because of our sins;
# Also they havedominion over our bodies and our cattle
At their pleasure;
And wearein great distress.
38 “And because of all this,
# Wemake a surecovenantand writeit;
# Our leaders, our Levites,andour priestssealit.”