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Chapter 9

Confession of the People. On the twenty-fourth day of this month, the Israelites, wearing sackcloth and with their heads covered with dust, assembled together for a fast. Then those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners, after which they stood up and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their ancestors.[a]

They next stood in their places and read from the book of the law of the Lord, their God, for a fourth part of the day, after which they spent another quarter of the day in confessing their sins and worshiping the Lord, their God. Standing on the platform of the Levites were Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani, and they cried aloud to the Lord, their God.

Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said:

“Stand up and bless the Lord, your God
    from everlasting to everlasting.
And blessed is your glorious name
    that is exalted above all blessing and praise.”

Then Ezra said:

“You alone are the Lord:
    you have created the heavens,
    the highest heavens with all their host,
the earth and all that is upon it,
    the seas and all that is in them.
To all of them you gave life,
    and the hosts of heaven worship you.
“You are the Lord,
    the God who chose Abram,
who brought him out from Ur of the Chaldeans
    and changed his name to Abraham.
Finding that his heart was faithful,
    you made a covenant with him
to give to his descendants
    the land of the Canaanites,
Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites,
    Jebusites, and Girgashites.
The promises of yours you fulfilled,
    for you are just.
“You beheld the misery of our ancestors in Egypt
    and heard their cry at the Red Sea.
10 “You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh,
    against all his servants and the people of his land.
Because you knew of the great arrogance
    with which they treated our forefathers,
and you won renown for yourself
    that has lasted even to this very day.
11 “You divided the sea before them,
and they passed through the sea on dry ground.
However, their pursuers you hurled into the depths
    like a stone cast into turbulent waters.
12 By a pillar of cloud you led them by day,
    and by a pillar of fire during the night,
to light the way ahead of them
    along which they were to follow.
13 “You came down on Mount Sinai
    and spoke with them from heaven.
You gave them regulations and laws
    that are just and right,
    statutes and commandments that are good.
14 You made known to them your holy sabbath,
    and through your servant Moses
    you gave them commandments, statutes, and laws.
15 “You gave them bread from heaven
    to ease their hunger,
and you brought forth water from a rock
    to quench their thirst.
You also told them to enter
    and take possession of the land
    which you had solemnly sworn to give them.
16 “However, they and our ancestors acted with arrogance;
    they stubbornly refused to obey your commandments.
17 They refused to obey you
    and no longer recalled the miracles
    you had wrought among them.
In their obstinacy they became stiff-necked
    and came to a decision
    to return to their slavery in Egypt.
But because you are a forgiving God,
    gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger and rich in mercy,
    you did not forsake them.
18 “Even when they had cast for themselves
    a calf out of molten metal
and proclaimed: ‘Here is your God
who brought you up from Egypt,’
and were guilty of gross blasphemies,
19 you in your great compassion
    did not abandon them in the wilderness.
The pillar of cloud never failed
    to lead them on their journey by night,
nor did the pillar of fire fail by night
    to light the way ahead of them
    by which they were to go.
20 “You bestowed your good spirit on them
    to give them understanding.
Your manna you did not withhold from their mouths,
    and you gave them water in their thirst.
21 For forty years you sustained them;
    they lacked nothing in the wilderness.
Their clothes did not become worn,
    and their feet did not become swollen.
22 “You gave them kingdoms and peoples,
    allotting to them even the most remote frontiers.
They took possession of the land of King Sihon of Heshbon
    and the land of King Og of Bashan.
23 You made their children as numerous
    as the stars of the heavens,
and you brought them into the land
    which you had commanded their fathers to enter and possess.
24 “The sons entered and took possession of the land,
and you subdued the Canaanite inhabitants
    and delivered them into your power,
their kings as well as the peoples of the land,
    to deal with them as they pleased.
25 They captured fortified towns and fertile land;
    they took possession of houses
    filled with all kinds of good things,
cisterns already dug, vineyards,
    olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance.
They ate and had their fill, grew fat,
    and found delight in your great goodness.
26 “Nevertheless they grew disobedient,
    rebelled against you,
    and cast your law behind their backs.
They also killed your prophets
    who bore witness against them
to bring them back to you,
    while they committed great blasphemies.
27 Therefore, you delivered them
    into the power of their enemies
    who caused them to suffer greatly.
But when they would cry out to you
    in the midst of their oppression,
from heaven you heard them,
    and in your great compassion
you would send them saviors
    to deliver them from the clutches
    of their oppressors.
28 “However, after some respite,
    they would resume their evil deeds,
and so the Lord abandoned them to their enemies
    who then became their rulers.
When once again they appealed to you,
    you heard them from heaven,
and because of your compassion
    you rescued them on many occasions.
29 You solemnly warned them
    in order to bring them back to your law.
However, they became arrogant
    and refused to obey your commandments,
and they sinned against your ordinances
    whose observance would bring life
    to those who keep them.
Rather they stubbornly turned aside,
    and in their obstinacy they refused to obey.
30 “You were patient with them for many years
    and warned them by your spirit
    through the prophets.
However, when they continued to refuse to listen,
    you put them at the mercy
    of the people of other lands.
31 Yet even so, because of your great compassion,
    you did not completely destroy them,
nor did you forsake them,
    for you are a gracious and merciful God.
32 “Therefore, O our God,
    you are great, mighty, and awesome,
    maintaining the covenant and your faithful love.
Do not treat lightly,
    as something of little account,
these hardships that have afflicted us,
    our kings, our princes, our priests,
    our prophets and all your people,
from the days of the kings of Assyria
    until this very day.
33 You have treated us with justice
    in everything that has happened to us,
for you have remained faithful to us
    even though we have done wrong in your eyes.
34 “Our kings, our princes, our priests, and our ancestors
    did not keep your law,
nor did they pay attention to your commandments
    or heed the warnings you gave them.
35 Even while they were in their own kingdom,
    despite the abundant goodness
    that you bestowed upon them,
and despite the wide and fertile land
    that you lavished upon them,
they did not serve you
    or renounce their evil deeds.
36 “But see, here we are slaves today,
    slaves in this land
that you gave to our ancestors
    so that we might savor its fruits
    and all the good things it produces.[b]
37 All its abundant yield
    is given to the kings
whom you have set over us
    because of our sins.
They also rule over our bodies
    and do as they please with our cattle;
    therefore we are in great distress.”

Footnotes

  1. Nehemiah 9:2 In addition to fasting and wearing sackcloth, the repentant Israelites made a public confession of their sins and that of their ancestors.
  2. Nehemiah 9:36 The Israelites reoccupied the land that God had provided for them, but were still required to return part of their resources to a foreign king.

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.

And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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;

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:

And didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry by the Red sea;

10 And shewedst 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.

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.

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.

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:

14 And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant:

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.

16 But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments,

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.

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;

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 shew them light, and the way wherein they should go.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

28 But after they had rest, they did evil again before thee: therefore leftest thou them in the land 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;

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.

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.

31 Nevertheless for thy great mercies' sake thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God.

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.

33 Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly:

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.

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.

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:

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.

38 And because of all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, Levites, and priests, seal unto it.