Nehemiah 9

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1 In the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth and ash on their heads.
2 And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
3 And they stood in their place, and a quarter of the day they read in the book of the law of the LORD their God, and the fourth part they confessed and worshiped the LORD their God.

4 And they stood by a pillar of the Levites: Joshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani, and cried aloud to the Lord their God.
5 Then the Levites - Jesus, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, Pethahiah: Stand up and bless the LORD your God, for ever and ever. Yes glorify glorious above all blessing and praise thy name!
6 You, LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, and all their host, the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all; and the host of heaven worship you.
7 Thou, O Lord God, chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name of Abraham;
8 and found his heart faithful before thee, and entered into a covenant with him to give to his seed the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Jebusites and Girgashites. And you his word, because 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 upon Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and on all the people of his land, for you knew that they dealt proudly against them, and made you a name, to this day.
eleven And thou didst divide the sea before them, and they went through the sea on dry land, and their pursuers You threw into the depths, like a stone into the mighty waters.
12 In a pillar of cloud you led them by day in a pillar of fire - at night to give them light in the way wherein they should go.
13 And You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven and gave them right judgments, true laws, good statutes and commandments.
14 And I have them thy holy sabbath and commandments, statutes, and law by the hand of Moses thy servant.
15 And bread from heaven you gave them for their hunger, and water dripped from the stone to them for their thirst, and said to them that they should go in and possess the land which thou hadst, [swore] to give them.
16 But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not unto thy commandments;
17 they refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them, and held his neck elastic, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage. But you are a God who loves to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy, and you did not leave them.
18 And though they made themselves litago calf, and said, This is your God who brought you out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations,
19 but thou, by thy great mercy, did not abandon them in the wilderness; the pillar of cloud did not depart from them by day to lead them on the way, and the pillar of fire - at night, to give light on the way in which they should go.
20 You gave them your good Spirit to instruct them, and not withhold Your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst.
21 Forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness; they are in no shortage suffered; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.
22 And you gave them kingdoms and nations, and divided them, and they possessed the land of Sihon, and 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 heaven, and brought them into the land which You told their fathers that they should go to possess [it].
24 And the children went in and possessed the land. And you won them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands, with their kings and the peoples of the earth, that they might do with them as they would.
25 And they took strong cities and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all good things, water, carved [stone], vineyards and olive orchards and lots of trees [with fruits] for food. We were filled, tuchneli and enjoyed in thy great goodness;
26 they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law, and slew thy prophets who testified against them to turn to thee, and they wrought great provocations.
27 And You gave them into the hand of their enemies, who vexed them. But when, in a close time for them, they cried out to you, you listened to them from heaven, and according to thy great mercy gave them saviors, who saved them from the hand of their enemies.
28 When the rest, they did evil again before thee, and thou hast delivered them into the hand of their enemies, and they had dominion over them. But they again cried out to you, you listened to them from heaven, and according to thy great mercy, delivered them many times.
29 You testified against them to turn to thy law, but they persisted and did not listen to your commandments and sinned against thy judgments, which if a man had performed them, and bow down [their] were disobedient, and hardened their necks, and did not listen .
thirty While waiting for their [treatment], you delayed for many years, and testify against them by Your Spirit through Your prophets, but they would not listen. And You gave them into the hand of peoples of the lands.
31 But, according to thy great mercies thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God.
32 And now, our God, great, strong and terrible, keeping the covenant and mercy! Let there be little before thee all the trouble that has come upon us, our kings, our princes, and our priests and our prophets and our fathers and all your people from the days of the kings of Assyria unto this day.
33 In the befallen us You are righteous, because you did the truth, and we are guilty.
34 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.
35 And in his kingdom, in thy great goodness that you gave them, and in the large and fat land which thou gavest before them, they did not serve you or accessed from their wicked works.
36 And now, we are servants; in the land which thou hast given to our fathers, to eat its fruit and its good, behold, we are servants.
37 And their product it yields much increase to the kings whom thou hast set over us for our sins. And our bodies and over our cattle they own, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.
38 In all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, seal, Levites and our priests.

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