Nehemiah
9:1 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.
9:2 And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and
stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.
9:3 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.
9:4 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.
9:5 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.
9:6 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.
9:7 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;
9:8 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:
9:9 And didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their
cry by the Red sea;
9:10 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.
9:11 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.
9:12 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.
9:13 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:
9:14 And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them
precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant:
9:15 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.
9:16 But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and
hearkened not to thy commandments,
9:17 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.
9:18 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;
9:19 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.
9:20 Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not
thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst.
9:21 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.
9:22 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.
9:23 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.
9:24 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.
9:25 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.
9:26 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.
9:27 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.
9:28 But after they had rest, they did evil again before thee: therefore
leftest thou them in the hand 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;
9:29 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.
9:30 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.
9:31 Nevertheless for thy great mercies' sake thou didst not utterly consume
them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God.
9:32 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.
9:33 Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done
right, but we have done wickedly:
9:34 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.
9:35 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.
9:36 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:
9:37 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.
9:38 And because of all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our
princes, Levites, and priests, seal unto it.
