Neemias 9

1 Now, on the twenty-fourth day of this month, were the sons of Israel gathered together, with fasting and with sackcloth, having earth upon them.

2 And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all the sons of the foreigner,and stood and made confession over their own sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.

3 So 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, a fourth part, they were making confession and bowing themselves down, unto Yahweh their God.

4 Then stood up on the platform of the Levites, Jeshua and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, Chenani,and made outcry, with a loud voice, unto Yahweh their God.

5 Then said the LevitesJeshua and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, Pethahiah, Stand up, bless Yahweh your God, from age to age,Yea let them bless thy glorious Name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.

6 Thou, art Yahweh, thou alone, Thou, didst make the heavens, the heavens of heavens, and all their host, the earth and all that is thereon, the seas and all that is therein, and, thou, holdest them all in life,and, the host of the heavens, unto thee, are bowing down.

7 Thou, art Yahweh, God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees,and madest his name Abraham;

8 and didst find his heart faithful before thee, and didst solemnize with him a covenant, to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite, and the Girgashite,to give it unto his seed,and didst confirm thy words, for, righteous, thou art.

9 Yea thou sawest the affliction of our fathers, in Egypt, and, their outcry, thou heardest, by the Red Sea;

10 and didst grant signs and wonders against Pharaoh, and against all his servants, and against all the people of his land, for thou hadst taken note, that they ruled proudly over them,and so thou didst make thee a name, as at this day.

11 And, the sea, didst thou cleave asunder before them, and they passed through the midst of the sea, on dry ground,whereas, their pursuers, thou didst cast into the depths like a stone, into the mighty waters,

12 And, in a pillar of cloud, didst thou lead them, by day,and in a pillar of fire, by night, to light up for them the way wherein they should go.

13 And, upon Mount Sinai, camest thou down, and spakest with them out of the heavens,and gavest them just regulations, and faithful laws, good statutes and commandments.

14 And, thy holy sabbath, didst thou make known to them,and, commandments and statutes and a law, didst thou command them, through Moses thy servant.

15 And, bread out of the heavens, didst thou give them, for their hunger, and, waters out of the cliff, didst thou bring them, for their thirst,and badest them go in to take possession of the land, which thou hadst lifted thy hand to give them.

16 But, they and our fathers, dealt proudly,and hardened their neck, and hearkened not unto thy commandments;

17 but refused to hearken, neither kept in mind thy wonders which thou hadst done with them, but they hardened their neck, and appointed a head that they might return to their servitude, in their perverseness. But, thou, art a God of forgivenesses, gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness, and didst not forsake them.

18 Yea, although they made them a molten calf, and said, This, is thy God, that brought thee up out of Egypt,and wrought great insults,

19 yet, thou, in thine abounding compassions, didst not forsake them in the desert,the pillar of cloud, departed not from over them by day, to lead them in the way, nor the pillar of fire by night, to light up for them the way wherein they should go.

20 And, thy Good Spirit, thou gavest, to instruct them,and, thy manna, thou withheldest not from their mouth, and, water, thou gavest them, for their thirst.

21 Yea, forty years, didst thou sustain them in the desert, they lacked nothing,their mantles, waxed not old and, their feet, swelled not.

22 And thou gavest them kingdoms, and peoples, and allotted to each of them a corner,and they took possession of the land of Sihon, and the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.

23 Their children also, didst thou multiply, like the stars of the heavens,and didst bring them into the land which thou hadst promised their fathers they should enter to possess;

24 so the children entered and possessed the land, and thou subduedst before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and deliveredst them into their hand,with their kings, and the peoples of the land, to do with them according to their pleasure;

25 and they captured fortified cities and a fat soil, and took possession of houses full of every good thing, wells digged, vineyards and oliveyards and fruit-trees, in abundance,so they did eat and were filled and became fat, and luxuriated in thy great goodness.

26 But they murmured and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their back, and, thy prophets, they slew, who testified against them that they might turn them back unto thee,and they wrought great insults.

27 Therefore didst thou deliver them into the hand of their adversaries, who distressed them,and, in the time of their distress, they made outcry unto thee, and, thou, out of the heavens, didst hear, and, according to thine abounding compassions, gavest them saviors, that they might save them out of the hand of their adversaries.

28 But, as soon as they had rest, they again wrought wickedness before thee,and thou didst leave them in the hand of their enemies, who bare rule over them, yet, when they again made outcry unto thee, thou, from the heavens, didst hear and didst deliver them according to thy compassions, many times;

29 and didst testify against them, to bring them back unto thy law, yet, they, dealt proudly, and hearkened not unto thy commandments, and, against thy regulations, they sinned, the whichif any son of earth shall dothen shall he live by them,and yielded a rebellious shoulder, and, their neck, they stiffened, and hearkened not.

30 And thou didst suffer many years to pass over them, and didst testify against them by thy Spirit through thy prophets, yet did they not give ear,therefore didst thou deliver them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.

31 Yet, in thine abounding compassions, thou didst not make of them an end, neither didst thou forsake them,for, a GOD gracious and full of compassion, thou art.

32 Now, therefore, O our Godthe GOD great, mighty, and fearfulkeeping the covenant and the lovingkindness, let not all the trouble seem little before thee, which hath come upon uson our kings, on our rulers, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people,from the days of the kings of Assyria, until this day.

33 But, thou, art righteous, as to all that hath fallen upon us,for, faithfulness, hast thou wrought, whereas, we, have been lawless;

34 and, our kings, our rulers, our priests, and our fathers, have not kept thy law,nor given heed unto thy commandments, or unto thy testimonies, wherewith thou hast testified against them.

35 But, they, in their kingdom, and in thine abundant goodness which thou gavest them, and in the broad and fat land which thou didst set before them, did not serve thee, neither turned they from their wicked doings.

36 Lo! we, to-day, are bondmeneven upon the land which thou gavest our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, lo! we, are bondmen;

37 and, the increase thereof, aboundeth unto the kings whom thou hast set over us, for our sins,and, over our bodies, are they bearing rule, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and, in great distress, we are.

38 Seeing, therefore, all this, we, are plighting our faith, and putting it in writing,and, upon the sealed scroll, are our rulers, our Levites, our priests.