Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel
were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on
their heads. And the Israelites separated themselves from all
foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of
their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the
Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day; for
another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the LORD
their God. On the stairs of the Levites stood Jeshua, Bani,
Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani; and they
cried with a loud voice to the LORD their God. Then the Levites,
Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah,
and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless the LORD your God from
everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is
exalted above all blessing and praise.
“You are the LORD, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of
heavens, with 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; and the
host of heaven worships you. You are the LORD, the God who chose
Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the
name Abraham. You found his heart faithful before you, and made
with him the covenant to give to his offspring the land of the
Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite,
and the Girgashite. And you have kept your promise, for you are
righteous.
“And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard
their cry at the Red Sea, and performed signs and wonders against
Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for
you knew that they acted arrogantly against our fathers. And you
made a name for yourself, as it is to this day. And you divided the
sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on
dry land, and you cast their pursuers into the depths, as a stone
into mighty waters. By a pillar of cloud you led them in the day,
and by a pillar of fire in the night to light for them the way in
which they should go. You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with
them from heaven and gave them right rules and true laws, good
statutes and commandments, and you made known to them your holy
Sabbath and commanded them commandments and statutes and a law by
Moses your servant. You gave them bread from heaven for their
hunger and brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst,
and you told them to go in to possess the land that you had sworn
to give them.
“But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened
their neck and did not obey your commandments. They refused to obey
and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them,
but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to
their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive,
gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast
love, and did not forsake them. Even when they had made for
themselves a golden calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought
you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed great blasphemies, you in
your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The
pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by
day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by
which they should go. You gave your good Spirit to instruct them
and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them
water for their thirst. Forty years you sustained them in the
wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out
and their feet did not swell.
“And you gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them
every corner. So they took possession of the land of Sihon king of
Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan. You multiplied their
children as the stars of heaven, and you brought them into the land
that you had told their fathers to enter and possess. So the
descendants went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before
them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them
into their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that
they might do with them as they would. And they captured fortified
cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses full of all
good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards and
fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became
fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness.
“Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and
cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets, who had
warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed
great blasphemies. Therefore you gave them into the hand of their
enemies, who made them suffer. And in the time of their suffering
they cried out to you and you heard them from heaven, and according
to your great mercies you gave them saviors who saved them from the
hand of their enemies. But after they had rest they did evil again
before you, and you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so
that they had dominion over them. Yet when they turned and cried to
you, you heard from heaven, and many times you delivered them
according to your mercies. And you warned them in order to turn
them back to your law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not
obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules, which if a
person does them, he shall live by them, and they turned a stubborn
shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey. Many years
you bore with them and warned them by your Spirit through your
prophets. Yet they would not give ear. Therefore you gave them into
the hand of the peoples of the lands. Nevertheless, in your great
mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you
are a gracious and merciful God.
“Now, therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome
God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the
hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings,
our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your
people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day. Yet
you have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have
dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly. Our kings, our
princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law or
paid attention to your commandments and your warnings that you gave
them. Even in their own kingdom, and amid your great goodness that
you gave them, and in the large and rich land that you set before
them, they did not serve you or turn from their wicked works.
Behold, we are slaves this day; in the land that you gave to our
fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts, behold, we are
slaves. And its rich yield 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.
“Because of all this we make a firm covenant in writing; on the
sealed document are the names of our princes, our Levites, and our
priests.
