The People of Israel Confess Their Sin

9 Now on the twenty-fourth day of ^(A)this month the people of Israel were assembled ^(B)with fasting ^(C)and in sackcloth, ^(D)and with earth on their heads. ^2 (E)And the Israelites^[a] separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. ^3 (F)And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God. ⁴ On the stairs of the Levites stood ^(G)Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani; and they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God. ⁵ 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. ^(H)Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.

^{6 [b] (I)}“You are the Lord, you alone. ^(J)You have made heaven, ^(K)the heaven of heavens, ^(L)with all their host, ^(M)the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; ^(N)and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.

^38 [a] “Because of all this ^(A)we make a firm covenant in writing; on ^(B)the sealed document are the names of^[b] our princes, our Levites, and our priests.

The Obligations of the Covenant

^28 (A)“The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, ^(B)and all who have separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who have knowledge and understanding, ²⁹ join with their brothers, their nobles, ^(C)and enter into a curse and an oath ^(D)to walk in God's Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and his rules and his statutes.