Nehemiah 9

A day of fasting and confession

1On the twenty-fourth day of that same month the Israelites assembled, fasting, dressed in sackcloth and with dust on their heads. 2Those of Israelite descent set themselves apart from all foreigners; they stood and confessed their own sins and the guilt of their ancestors. 3They stood up where they were, and for a quarter of the day they read aloud from the book of the law of Yahweh their God, and for another quarter they made confession and bowed down before Yahweh their God. 4On the platform of the Levites stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Kenani, and they cried out at the top of their voices to Yahweh their God.

The great prayer of the Levites

5And the Levites — Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah — said: “Stand up and bless Yahweh your God from everlasting to everlasting. Let them bless your glorious name, lifted higher than every blessing and every song of praise. 6You alone are Yahweh. You made the heavens, the highest heavens with all their array, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; you give life to them all, and the array of heaven bows down to you. 7You are Yahweh, the God who chose Abram, who brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham. 8You found his heart faithful before you, and you cut a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite and the Girgashite — to give it to his descendants. And you kept your word, for you are just. 9You saw the affliction of our ancestors in Egypt; you heard their cry at the Sea of Reeds. 10You sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his officials and all the people of his land, for you knew how arrogantly they had treated them; and you made a name for yourself that stands to this day. 11You split the sea open before them, and they walked through the middle of it on dry ground, while you flung their pursuers into the depths like a stone into raging water. 12By a pillar of cloud you led them in the daytime, and by a pillar of fire at night, to light the road they were to travel. 13You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven. You gave them upright rulings and true instruction, good statutes and commandments. 14You made your holy Sabbath known to them, and through your servant Moses you laid on them commandments, statutes and instruction. 15For their hunger you gave them bread from heaven; for their thirst you brought them water out of the rock. And you told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn with raised hand to give them.

Rebellion and patience

16But they and our ancestors turned arrogant. They stiffened their necks and would not obey your commandments. 17They refused to listen and forgot the wonders you had done among them. They stiffened their necks and, in their rebellion, appointed a leader to take them back to slavery. But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and rich in faithful love; you did not abandon them. 18Even when they cast themselves a metal calf and said, ‘This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and committed one outrage after another — 19even then, in your great compassion, you did not abandon them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud never left them by day, to lead them along the way, nor the pillar of fire by night, to light the road they were to travel. 20You gave your good spirit to give them understanding. You did not hold back your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. 21For forty years you kept them alive in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell. 22You gave them kingdoms and peoples, parceling out the land to them region by region. They took possession of the land of Sihon, the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan. 23You made their children as many as the stars of the sky, and you brought them into the land you had told their ancestors to enter and possess. 24The children came in and took the land. You subdued before them the Canaanites who lived there and handed them over, with their kings and the peoples of the land, to do with them as they saw fit. 25They captured fortified cities and rich ground. They took over houses stocked with every good thing, cisterns already cut, vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees in abundance. They ate, they had their fill, they grew fat, they lived in luxury on your great goodness. 26Then they turned defiant and rebelled against you. They threw your law behind their backs and killed your prophets, who had warned them to come back to you, and they committed one outrage after another. 27So you handed them over to their oppressors, who made them suffer. In their time of distress they cried out to you, and from heaven you listened; in your great compassion you gave them rescuers, who saved them from the hand of their oppressors. 28But as soon as they had rest, they went back to doing evil in your sight. So you left them to the hand of their enemies, who ruled over them. Then they cried out to you again, and from heaven you listened and delivered them, time after time, in your compassion. 29You warned them, to bring them back to your law. But they acted arrogantly and would not obey your commandments. They sinned against your rulings — the rulings by which anyone who keeps them will live. They turned a stubborn shoulder, stiffened their necks and refused to listen. 30Year after year you were patient with them. You warned them by your spirit through your prophets, and still they would not give ear. So you handed them over to the peoples of the lands. 31Yet in your great compassion you did not make an end of them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and compassionate God.

And now, our God

32And now, our God — great God, mighty and awesome, who keeps covenant and faithful love — do not count as small all the hardship that has come upon us, upon our kings and our leaders, our priests and our prophets, our ancestors and all your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until today. 33In all that has come upon us you have been just. You have acted faithfully; it is we who have done wrong. 34Our kings, our leaders, our priests and our ancestors did not keep your law. They paid no attention to your commandments or to the warnings you gave them. 35Even in their own kingdom, amid the great goodness you lavished on them, in the broad and fertile land you set before them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil ways. 36Look at us: today we are slaves. In the land you gave our ancestors so that they could eat its fruit and its bounty — here we are, slaves on it. 37Its rich yield goes to the kings you have set over us because of our sins. They do as they please with our bodies and our livestock, and we are in deep distress.”