[1] Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were
assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth upon their heads.
[2] And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood
and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. [3] And they
stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the LORD their
God for a fourth of the day; for another fourth of it they made confession
and worshiped the LORD their God. [4] Upon the stairs of the Levites stood
Jeshua, Bani, Kad'mi-el, Shebani'ah, Bunni, Sherebi'ah, Bani, and Chena'ni;
and they cried with a loud voice to the LORD their God. [5] Then the
Levites, Jeshua, Kad'mi-el, Bani, Hashabnei'ah, Sherebi'ah, Hodi'ah,
Shebani'ah, and Pethahi'ah, said, "Stand up and bless the LORD your God
from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be thy glorious name which is
exalted above all blessing and praise." [6] And Ezra said: "Thou art the
LORD, thou alone; thou hast 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 thou preservest all of them; and the host of heaven worships
thee. [7] Thou art the LORD, the God who didst choose Abram and bring him
forth out of Ur of the Chalde'ans and give him the name Abraham; [8] and
thou didst find his heart faithful before thee, and didst make with him the
covenant to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite,
the Amorite, the Per'izzite, the Jeb'usite, and the Gir'gashite; and thou
hast fulfilled thy promise, for thou art righteous. [9] "And thou didst see
the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and hear their cry at the Red Sea,
[10] and didst perform signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his
servants and all the people of his land, for thou knewest that they acted
insolently against our fathers; and thou didst get thee a name, as it is to
this day. [11] And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went
through the midst of the sea on dry land; and thou didst cast their
pursuers into the depths, as a stone into mighty waters. [12] By a pillar
of cloud thou didst lead them in the day, and by a pillar of fire in the
night to light for them the way in which they should go. [13] Thou didst
come down upon Mount Sinai, and speak with them from heaven and give them
right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments, [14] and
thou didst make known to them thy holy sabbath and command them
commandments and statutes and a law by Moses thy servant. [15] Thou didst
give them bread from heaven for their hunger and bring forth water for them
from the rock for their thirst, and thou didst tell them to go in to
possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them. [16] "But they and
our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey
thy commandments; [17] they refused to obey, and were not mindful of the
wonders which thou didst perform among them; but they stiffened their neck
and appointed a leader to return to their bondage in Egypt. But thou art a
God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in
steadfast love, and didst not forsake them. [18] Even when they had made
for themselves a molten calf and said, `This is your God who brought you up
out of Egypt,' and had committed great blasphemies, [19] thou in thy great
mercies didst not forsake them in the wilderness; the pillar of cloud which
led them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire
by night which lighted for them the way by which they should go. [20] Thou
gavest thy good Spirit to instruct them, and didst not withhold thy manna
from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst. [21] Forty years
didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing; their
clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell. [22] And thou didst
give them kingdoms and peoples, and didst allot to them every corner; so
they took possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the land of
Og king of Bashan. [23] Thou didst multiply their descendants as the stars
of heaven, and thou didst bring them into the land which thou hadst told
their fathers to enter and possess. [24] So the descendants went in and
possessed the land, and thou didst subdue before them the inhabitants of
the land, the Canaanites, and didst give them into their hands, with their
kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they
would. [25] And they captured fortified cities and a rich land, and took
possession of houses full of all good things, cisterns hewn out, vineyards,
olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance; so they ate, 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 back and killed thy prophets, who had warned them in order
to turn them back to thee, and they committed great blasphemies. [27]
Therefore thou didst give them into the hand of their enemies, who made
them suffer; and in the time of their suffering they cried to thee and thou
didst hear them from heaven; and according to thy great mercies thou didst
give them saviors who saved them from the hand of their enemies. [28] But
after they had rest they did evil again before thee, and thou didst abandon
them to the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them; yet
when they turned and cried to thee thou didst hear from heaven, and many
times thou didst deliver them according to thy mercies. [29] And thou didst
warn them in order to turn them back to thy law. Yet they acted
presumptuously and did not obey thy commandments, but sinned against thy
ordinances, by the observance of which a man shall live, and turned a
stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey. [30] Many
years thou didst bear with them, and didst warn them by thy Spirit through
thy prophets; yet they would not give ear. Therefore thou didst give them
into the hand of the peoples of the lands. [31] Nevertheless in thy great
mercies thou didst not make an end of them or forsake them; for thou art a
gracious and merciful God. [32] "Now therefore, our God, the great and
mighty and terrible God, who keepest covenant and steadfast love, let not
all the hardship seem little to thee that has come upon us, upon our kings,
our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all thy people,
since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day. [33] Yet thou hast
been just in all that has come upon us, for thou hast dealt faithfully and
we have acted wickedly; [34] our kings, our princes, our priests, and our
fathers have not kept thy law or heeded thy commandments and thy warnings
which thou didst give them. [35] They did not serve thee in their kingdom,
and in thy great goodness which thou gavest them, and in the large and rich
land which thou didst set before them; and they did not turn from their
wicked works. [36] Behold, we are slaves this day; in the land that thou
gavest to our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts, behold, we are
slaves. [37] And its rich yield goes to the kings whom thou hast set over
us because of our sins; they have power also over our bodies and over our
cattle at their pleasure, and we are in great distress." [38] Because of
all this we make a firm covenant and write it, and our princes, our
Levites, and our priests set their seal to it.

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