Nehemiah 9

9 ¹ On the twenty-fourth day of this same month the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing mourning clothes, with dust on their heads. ^a a v1 Putting dust on the head, along with fasting and rough sackcloth, was an ancient sign of deep grief and repentance. ² Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners, and they stood and confessed their own sins and the wrongs of their ancestors. ³ They stood in their places and read from the Book of the Law of our Father for about three hours, and for another three hours they confessed and worshiped our Father. ⁴ Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani stood on the stairs of the Levites and cried out loudly to our Father. ⁵ Then the Levites — Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah — said: "Stand up and bless your Father from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise." ⁶ You alone are our Father. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, with all their host, the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to them all, and the host of heaven worships you. ⁷ You are our Father, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham. ⁸ You found his heart faithful before you, and you made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites, and Girgashites — to give it to his descendants. And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous. ⁹ You saw the suffering of our ancestors in Egypt; you heard their cry at the Red Sea. ¹⁰ You sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his officials and all the people of his land, for you knew how arrogantly the Egyptians treated our people. So you made a name for yourself, which endures to this day. ¹¹ You divided the sea before them, so that they passed through it on dry ground, but you hurled their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into the mighty waters. ¹² By day you led them with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire, to give them light on the way they were to travel. ¹³ You came down on Mount Sinai; you spoke to them from heaven. You gave them just regulations and true laws, good statutes and commands. ¹⁴ You made known to them your holy Sabbath and gave them commands, statutes, and laws through your servant Moses. ¹⁵ In their hunger you gave them bread from heaven, and in their thirst you brought them water out of the rock. You told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn to give them. ¹⁶ But they — our ancestors — became arrogant and stubborn, and they refused to obey your commands. ¹⁷ They refused to listen and failed to remember the wonders you did among them. They became stubborn, and in their rebellion they appointed a leader to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving Father, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love, and you did not abandon them. ¹⁸ Even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, "This is your god who brought you up out of Egypt," and committed terrible blasphemies, ¹⁹ you, in your great compassion, did not abandon them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud still led them on their way by day, and the pillar of fire still lit their path by night. ²⁰ You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. ²¹ For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing; their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell. ²² You gave them kingdoms and peoples, giving them territory in every corner of the land. So they took possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan. ²³ You made their children as numerous as the stars in the sky, and you brought them into the land you had told their ancestors to enter and possess. ²⁴ Their children went in and took possession of the land. You subdued before them the Canaanites who lived there, and you handed the Canaanites over to them, with their kings and the peoples of the land, to deal with them as they pleased. ²⁵ They captured fortified cities and fertile land; they took possession of houses full of every good thing, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were satisfied and grew fat, and they reveled in your great goodness. ²⁶ But they were disobedient and rebelled against you; they cast your law behind their backs. They killed your prophets, who had warned them to turn them back to you, and they committed terrible blasphemies. ²⁷ So you handed them over to their enemies, who oppressed them. But in the time of their distress, when they cried out to you, you heard them from heaven, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies. ²⁸ But as soon as they had rest, they again did evil before you. So you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, who ruled over them. Yet when they turned back and cried out to you, you heard from heaven, and time after time, in your compassion, you rescued them. ²⁹ You warned them to return to your law, but they grew arrogant and did not obey your commands. They sinned against your judgments, which give life to whoever obeys them. Stubbornly they turned their backs, stiffened their necks, and would not listen. ³⁰ For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you warned them through your prophets, yet they would not pay attention. So you handed them over to the peoples of the lands. ³¹ But in your great compassion you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and compassionate Father. ³² And now, our Father — great and mighty and awesome, who keeps his covenant of faithful love — do not let all this hardship seem small before you: the hardship that has come upon us, upon our kings and leaders, our priests and prophets, our ancestors and all your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until today. ³³ In all that has come upon us you have been just; you have acted faithfully, while we have done wrong. ³⁴ Our kings and leaders, our priests and ancestors did not keep your law; they paid no attention to your commands or to the warnings you gave them. ³⁵ Even while they were in their own kingdom, enjoying the great goodness you gave them and the spacious, fertile land you set before them, they would not serve you or turn from their evil ways. ³⁶ And now look — we are slaves today, slaves in the very land you gave our ancestors so they could eat its fruit and its good things. ³⁷ Its abundant harvest goes to the kings you have set over us because of our sins. They rule over our bodies and our livestock as they please, and we are in great distress. ³⁸ In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement and putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites, and our priests are putting their seal on it.