[1] Now in the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were
assembled with fasting, and with sackcloth, and earth on them. [2] The seed
of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed
their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers. [3] They stood up in their
place, and read in the book of the law of Yahweh their God a fourth part of
the day; and [another] fourth part they confessed, and worshipped Yahweh
their God. [4] Then stood up on the stairs of the Levites, Jeshua, and
Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, [and] Chenani, and cried
with a loud voice to Yahweh their God. [5] Then the Levites, Jeshua, and
Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, [and] Pethahiah,
said, Stand up and bless Yahweh your God from everlasting to everlasting;
and blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and
praise. [6] You are Yahweh, even you alone; you have made heaven, the
heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all things that are
thereon, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all; and
the host of heaven worships you. [7] You are Yahweh the God, who did choose
Abram, and brought him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gave him the
name of Abraham, [8] and found his heart faithful before you, and mad a
covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the
Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite, and the Girgashite, to give
it to his seed, and have performed your words; for you are righteous. [9]
You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry by the
Red Sea, [10] and showed signs and wonders on Pharaoh, and on all his
servants, and on all the people of his land; for you knew that they dealt
proudly against them, and did get you a name, as it is this day. [11] You
divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea
on the dry land; and their pursuers you did cast into the depths, as a
stone into the mighty waters. [12] Moreover in a pillar of cloud you led
them by day; and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light in the
way in which they should go. [13] You came down also on Mount Sinai, and
spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws,
good statutes and commandments, [14] and mad known to them your holy
Sabbath, and commanded them commandments, and statutes, and a law, by Moses
your servant, [15] and gave them bread from the sky for their hunger, and
brought forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and
commanded those who they should go in to possess the land which you had
sworn to give them. [16] But they and our fathers dealt proudly and
hardened their neck, and didn`t listen to your commandments, [17] and
refused to obey, neither were mindful of your wonders that you did among
them, but hardened their neck, and in their rebellion appointed a captain
to return to their bondage. But you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and
merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, and didn`t forsake
them. [18] Yes, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is
your God who brought you up out of Egypt, and had committed awful
blasphemies; [19] yet you in your manifold mercies didn`t forsake them in
the wilderness: the pillar of cloud didn`t depart from over them by day, to
lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to show them
light, and the way in which they should go. [20] You gave also your good
Spirit to instruct them, and didn`t withhold your manna from their mouth,
and gave them water for their thirst. [21] Yes, forty years did you sustain
them in the wilderness, [and] they lacked nothing; their clothes didn`t
grow old, and their feet didn`t swell. [22] Moreover you gave them kingdoms
and peoples, which you did allot after their portions: so they possessed
the land of Sihon, even the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og
king of Bashan. [23] Their children also multiplied you as the stars of the
sky, and brought them into the land concerning which you did say to their
fathers, that they should go in to possess it. [24] So the children went in
and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the
land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands, with their kings, and
the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would. [25]
They took fortified cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of
all good things, cisterns hewn out, vineyards, and olive groves, and
fruit-trees in abundance: so they ate, and were filled, and became fat, and
delighted themselves in your great goodness. [26] Nevertheless they were
disobedient, and rebelled against you, and cast your law behind their back,
and killed your prophets that testified against them to turn them again to
you, and they committed awful blasphemies. [27] Therefore you delivered
them into the hand of their adversaries, who distressed them: and in the
time of their trouble, when they cried to you, you heard from heaven; and
according to your manifold mercies you gave them saviors who saved them out
of the hand of their adversaries. [28] But after they had rest, they did
evil again before you; therefore left you them in the hand of their
enemies, so that they had the dominion over them: yet when they returned,
and cried to you, you heard from heaven; and many times did you deliver
them according to your mercies, [29] and testified against them, that you
might bring them again to your law. Yet they dealt proudly, and didn`t
listen to your commandments, but sinned against your ordinances, (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 did you bear with them,
and testified against them by your Spirit through your prophets: yet would
they not give ear: therefore gave you them into the hand of the peoples of
the lands. [31] Nevertheless in your manifold mercies you did not make a
full end of them, nor forsake them; for you are a gracious and merciful
God. [32] Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome
God, who keep covenant and lovingkindness, don`t let all the travail seem
little before you, that has come on us, on our kings, on our princes, and
on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all your
people, since the time of the kings of Assyria to this day. [33] However
you are just in all that is come on us; for you have dealt truly, but we
have done wickedly; [34] neither have our kings, our princes, our priests,
nor our fathers, kept your law, nor listened to your commandments and your
testimonies with which you did testify against them. [35] For they have not
served you in their kingdom, and in your great goodness that you gave them,
and in the large and fat land which you gave before them, neither turned
they from their wicked works. [36] Behold, we are servants this day, and as
for the land that you gave to our fathers to eat the fruit of it and the
good of it, behold, we are servants in it. [37] It yields much increase to
the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins: also they have
power over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are
in great distress. [38] Yet for all this we make a sure covenant, and write
it; and our princes, our Levites, [and] our priests, seal to it.
