¹⁶ “But they and our fathers ^(A)acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. ¹⁷ They refused to obey ^(B)and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.^[a] But you are a God ready to forgive, ^(C)gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. ¹⁸ Even ^(D)when they had made for themselves a golden^[b] calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ ^(E)and had committed great blasphemies, ¹⁹ you ^(F)in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. ^(G)The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, ^(H)nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. ^20 (I)You gave your good Spirit to instruct them ^(J)and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. ^21 (K)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 “And you gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner. ^(L)So they took possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon ^(M)and the land of Og king of Bashan. ²³ You multiplied their children ^(N)as the stars of heaven, and you brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess. ^24 (O)So the descendants went in and possessed the land, ^(P)and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would. ²⁵ And they captured ^(Q)fortified cities and ^(R)a rich land, and took possession of ^(S)houses full of all good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled ^(T)and became fat and delighted themselves in ^(U)your great goodness.

Feast of Booths Celebrated

¹³ On the second day the heads of fathers' houses of all the people, with the priests and the Levites, came together to Ezra the scribe in order to study the words of the Law. ¹⁴ And they found it written in the Law that the Lord had commanded by Moses ^(A)that the people of Israel should dwell in booths^[a] during the feast of the seventh month, ¹⁵ and that they should proclaim it and ^(B)publish it in all their towns and ^(C)in Jerusalem, “Go out to the hills and bring ^(D)branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees to make booths, as it is written.” ¹⁶ So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each ^(E)on his roof, and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at ^(F)the Water Gate and in the square at ^(G)the Gate of Ephraim. ¹⁷ And all the assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in the booths, for from the days of Jeshua the son of Nun to that day ^(H)the people of Israel had not done so. And there was ^(I)very great rejoicing. ¹⁸ And day by day, from the first day to the last day, ^(J)he read from the Book of the Law of God. They kept the feast seven days, and ^(K)on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly, according to the rule.