Nehemiah 9

And on the twenty-fourth day of this month the sons of Israel were gathered in fasting and in sackcloth.

And the sons of Israel separated themselves from every foreign son, and they stood and confessed their sins and the lawless deeds of their fathers.

And they stood in their place and read in the book of the law of the Lord their God; and they were confessing to the Lord and doing obeisance to the Lord their God.

And Iesous and the sons of Kadmiel, Sachania son of Sarabia, the sons of Chanani, stood on the ascent of the Levites, and they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God.

And the Levites, Iesous and Kadmiel, said, “Rise up, bless the Lord your God from everlasting and unto everlasting. And they shall bless your glorious name and shall exalt it above every blessing and praise.”

And Esdras said, “You are he, the Lord alone. You made the heaven and the heaven of heaven and all their array, the earth and all that is in it, the seas and all that is in them; and you give life to them all, and the hosts of the heavens do obeisance to you.

You are the Lord God. You chose Abram and brought him out of the country of the Chaldeans and put on him the name Abraam.

And you found his heart faithful before you, and you made with him a covenant to give him the land of the Chananites and Chettites and Amorrites and Pherezites and Iebousites and Gergesites, and to his seed; and you established your words, for you are righteous.

And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and you heard their cry at the Red Sea.

And you gave signs in Egypt against Pharao and against all his servants and against all the people of his land, for you knew that they had acted arrogantly against them; and you made a name for yourself, as it is this day.

And you split the sea before them, and they passed through the midst of the sea on dry ground; and those who pursued them you threw into the deep, like a stone into mighty water.

And by a pillar of cloud you led them by day, and by a pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way in which they were to go.

And you came down on mount Sina and spoke to them out of heaven and gave them upright judgments and laws of truth, ordinances and good commandments.

And you made known to them your holy sabbath, and you commanded them commandments and ordinances and a law by the hand of Moyses your servant.

And bread from heaven you gave them for their hunger, and water out of a rock you brought forth for them for their thirst; and you told them to go in and inherit the land over which you had stretched out your hand to give to them.

But they and our fathers acted arrogantly and hardened their neck and did not listen to your commandments.

And they refused to listen and did not remember your wonders which you did among them; and they hardened their neck and made a beginning to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God merciful and compassionate, long-suffering and abounding in mercy, and you did not forsake them.

Moreover they even made for themselves a molten calf and said, “These are the gods who brought us up out of Egypt”; and they committed great provocations.

Yet you in your many compassions did not forsake them in the wilderness; the pillar of the cloud you did not turn aside from them by day, to guide them in the way, nor the pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way in which they were to go.

And you gave your good spirit to instruct them, and you did not withhold your manna from their mouth, and you gave them water for their thirst.

And forty years you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their garments did not wear out, and their feet were not split.

And you gave them kingdoms and peoples and distributed them to them; and they inherited the land of Seon king of Esebon and the land of Og king of Basan.

And you multiplied their sons as the stars of heaven and brought them into the land which you had promised their fathers, and they inherited it.

And you crushed before them the inhabitants of the land of the Chananites, and you gave them into their hands, both their kings and the peoples of the land, to do with them as seemed good before them.

And they captured high cities and inherited houses full of all good things, hewn cisterns, vineyards and olive groves and every edible tree in abundance; and they ate and were filled and grew fat and luxuriated in your great goodness.

But they changed and revolted from you and cast your law behind their body, and they killed your prophets who testified among them to turn them back to you; and they committed great provocations.

And you gave them into the hand of those who afflicted them, and they afflicted them; and they cried out to you in the time of their affliction, and you heard from your heaven, and in your great compassions you gave them saviors and saved them out of the hand of those who afflicted them.

But when they had rest, they turned back to do evil before you; and you abandoned them into the hands of their enemies, and these ruled over them. And again they cried out to you, and you listened from heaven and delivered them in your many compassions.

And you testified against them to turn them back to your law, and they did not listen, but sinned against your commandments and against your judgments, which if a person does them he shall live by them; and they turned a stubborn back and hardened their neck and did not listen.

And you prolonged it over them many years, and you testified against them by your spirit by the hand of your prophets, and they did not give ear; so you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the land.

Yet you in your many compassions did not make a full end of them and did not forsake them, for you are strong and merciful and compassionate.

And now, our God, the strong, the great, the mighty and the fearsome, who keeps your covenant and your mercy: let not all the hardship that has come upon us be counted little before you — upon our kings and our rulers and our priests and our prophets and our fathers and all your people, from the days of the kings of Assour until this day.

And you are righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have acted in truth, but we have sinned greatly.

And our kings and our rulers and our priests and our fathers did not keep your law, and they did not attend to your commandments and to your testimonies which you testified to them.

And they, in your kingdom and in your great goodness which you gave them, and in the broad and fertile land which you set before them, did not serve you and did not turn from their evil practices.

Behold, we are slaves today; and the land which you gave to our fathers to eat its fruit —

it belongs to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins; and they have authority over our bodies and over our cattle as it pleases them, and we are in great distress.