NE-9:1  Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the

children of Israel

were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth

upon them.

NE-9:2  And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all

strangers, and

stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their

fathers.

NE-9:3  And they stood up in their place, and read in the book

of the law of

the LORD their God [one] fourth part of the day; and [another]

fourth part

they confessed, and worshipped the LORD their God.

NE-9:4  Then stood up upon the stairs, of the Levites, Jeshua,

and Bani,

Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, [and] Chenani, and

cried with a

loud voice unto the LORD their God.

NE-9:5  Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah,

Sherebiah,

Hodijah, Shebaniah, [and] Pethahiah, said, Stand up [and] bless

the LORD your

God for ever and ever: and blessed be thy glorious name, which

is exalted

above all blessing and praise.

NE-9:6  Thou, [even] thou, [art] LORD alone; thou hast made

heaven, the heaven

of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all [things]

that [are]

therein, the seas, and all that [is] therein, and thou

preservest them all;

and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.

NE-9:7  Thou [art] the LORD the God, who didst choose Abram, and

broughtest

him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of

Abraham;

NE-9:8  And foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest

a covenant

with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the

Amorites, and

the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give

[it, I say],

to his seed, and hast performed thy words; for thou [art]

righteous:

NE-9:9  And didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt,

and heardest

their cry by the Red sea;

NE-9:10  And showedst signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all

his servants,

and on all the people of his land: for thou knewest that they

dealt proudly

against them. So didst thou get thee a name, as [it is] this day.

NE-9:11  And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they

went through

the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors thou

threwest into

the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters.

NE-9:12  Moreover thou leddest them in the day by a cloudy

pillar; and in the

night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein

they should

go.

NE-9:13  Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest

with them from

heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good

statutes and

commandments:

NE-9:14  And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and

commandedst them

precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant:

NE-9:15  And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and

broughtest

forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and

promisedst them

that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst

sworn to give

them.

NE-9:16  But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened

their necks, and

hearkened not to thy commandments,

NE-9:17  And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy

wonders that thou

didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their

rebellion appointed a

captain to return to their bondage: but thou [art] a God ready

to pardon,

gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and

forsookest

them not.

NE-9:18  Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said,

This [is] thy

God that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had wrought great

provocations;

NE-9:19  Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in

the

wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by

day, to lead

them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to show

them light, and

the way wherein they should go.

NE-9:20  Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and

withheldest

not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their

thirst.

NE-9:21  Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the

wilderness, [so that]

they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet

swelled not.

NE-9:22  Moreover thou gavest them kingdoms and nations, and

didst divide them

into corners: so they possessed the land of Sihon, and the land

of the king of

Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.

NE-9:23  Their children also multipliedst thou as the stars of

heaven, and

broughtest them into the land, concerning which thou hadst

promised to their

fathers, that they should go in to possess [it].

NE-9:24  So the children went in and possessed the land, and

thou subduedst

before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and

gavest them into

their hands, with their kings, and the people of the land, that

they might do

with them as they would.

NE-9:25  And they took strong cities, and a fat land, and

possessed houses

full of all goods, wells digged, vineyards, and oliveyards, and

fruit trees in

abundance: so they did eat, and were filled, and became fat, and

delighted

themselves in thy great goodness.

NE-9:26  Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled

against thee, and

cast thy law behind their backs, and slew thy prophets which

testified against

them to turn them to thee, and they wrought great provocations.

NE-9:27  Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their

enemies, who

vexed them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried

unto thee, thou

heardest [them] from heaven; and according to thy manifold

mercies thou gavest

them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies.

NE-9:28  But after they had rest, they did evil again before

thee: therefore

leftest thou them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had

the dominion

over them: yet when they returned, and cried unto thee, thou

heardest [them]

from heaven; and many times didst thou deliver them according to

thy mercies;

NE-9:29  And testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring

them again

unto thy law: yet they dealt proudly, and hearkened not unto thy

commandments,

but sinned against thy judgments, (which if a man do, he shall

live in them;)

and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would

not hear.

NE-9:30  Yet many years didst thou forbear them, and testifiedst

against them

by thy spirit in thy prophets: yet would they not give ear:

therefore gavest

thou them into the hand of the people of the lands.

NE-9:31  Nevertheless for thy great mercies' sake thou didst not

utterly

consume them, nor forsake them; for thou [art] a gracious and

merciful God.

NE-9:32  Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the

terrible God,

who keepest covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem

little before

thee, that hath come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, and

on our

priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy

people, since

the time of the kings of Assyria unto this day.

NE-9:33  Howbeit thou [art] just in all that is brought upon us;

for thou hast

done right, but we have done wickedly:

NE-9:34  Neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor

our fathers,

kept thy law, nor hearkened unto thy commandments and thy

testimonies,

wherewith thou didst testify against them.

NE-9:35  For they have not served thee in their kingdom, and in

thy great

goodness that thou gavest them, and in the large and fat land

which thou

gavest before them, neither turned they from their wicked works.

NE-9:36  Behold, we [are] servants this day, and [for] the land

that thou

gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good

thereof, behold,

we [are] servants in it:

NE-9:37  And it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou

hast set over

us because of our sins: also they have dominion over our bodies,

and over our

cattle, at their pleasure, and we [are] in great distress.

NE-9:38  And because of all this we make a sure [covenant], and

write [it];

and our princes, Levites, [and] priests, seal [unto it].

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