The Jews confess their sins
9
📚Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, with dust on their heads. 2 📚And the descendants of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners 📖, and stood and confessed 📖 their sins, and the evil deeds of their fathers. 3 📚And they stood in their places, and read 📖 from the book of the law of the LORD their God for a fourth of the day, and during another fourth they made their confession, and worshipped the LORD their God. 4 📚Then standing on the stairs of the Levites, Jeshua and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Kenani cried out to the LORD their God with a loud voice.A prayer remembering the Lord’s great deeds
5 📚Then the Levites Jeshua and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah said, “Stand up and praise the LORD 📖, your God forever and ever”. And they said, “Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. 6 📚You, you alone 📖, are the LORD. You made the heavens, the heaven of heavens, with all their starry host, the earth, and everything in it, the seas, and everything in them. And you preserve them 📖 all, and the host of heaven worships you 📖.
7 📚“You are the LORD God, who chose Abram, and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees 📖, and gave him the name of Abraham. 8 📚And you found his heart faithful 📖 toward you, and made a covenant with him to give him 📖 the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give it to his offspring, and you acted in accordance with your words, for you are righteous.
9 📚“And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry by the Red Sea, 10 📚and showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and against all his servants and against all the people of his land, for you knew that they treated them with arrogance. So you got a name for yourself, as it is this day. 11 📚And you divided the sea in front of them, so that they went through the middle of the sea on dry ground, and you hurled their pursuers into the deep, like a stone into the mighty waters. 12 📚Moreover you led them in the day by a pillar of cloud, and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light on the road they were to travel.
13 📚“And you came down upon Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven and gave them right judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments, 14 📚and made known to them your holy Sabbath, and commanded them precepts, statutes and laws, through your servant Moses. 15 📚And you gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, and brought water out of the rock 📖 for them for their thirst, and promised them that they would go in to possess the land 📖 which you had sworn to give them.
16 📚“But they and our fathers acted arrogantly and hardened their necks, and did not listen to your commandments, 17 📚and refused to obey. They did not keep in mind 📖 your wonders which you did among them, but they hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a leader to return to the place of their bondage 📖. But you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to get angry, and have great kindness 📖, so you did not forsake them. 18 📚Even when they made a calf 📖 of cast metal and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt’, and committed acts showing great contempt 📖, 19 📚because of your abundant mercy 📖 you still did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud, leading them in the way, did not leave them in the daylight, nor did the pillar of fire, showing them light on the way in which they should go, leave them at night.
20 📚“You also gave your good Spirit 📖 to instruct them, and did not withhold your manna 📖 from their mouth, and you gave them water for their thirst. 21 📚Yes, for forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell.
22 📚“Moreover you gave them kingdoms and nations, and allotted to them even remote areas 📖. So they possessed the land of Sihon, that is, the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan. 23 📚You also increased the number of their children like the stars of heaven 📖, and brought 📖 them into the land which you had promised to their fathers, so that they could go in to possess it. 24 📚So the children went in and possessed the land, and in front of them you subdued the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands, with their kings and the people of the land, so that they might do with them as they wished. 25 📚And they took strong cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses full of all kinds of good things, wells already dug, vineyards and olive gardens and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became fat, and delighted in your great goodness 📖.
26 📚“Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you, and threw your law behind their backs and killed your prophets, who admonished them to turn them to you, and they committed acts showing great contempt. 27 📚Therefore you delivered them into the hands of their enemies, who oppressed them. And in the time of their trouble, when they cried out to you, you heard them from heaven, and in accordance with your great mercies you gave them saviours, who saved them out of the hands of their enemies.
28 📚“But when they were at rest, they again did evil in your presence. Therefore you left them in the hands of their enemies, so that they ruled over them. Yet when they returned to you and cried out, you heard them from heaven, and many times you delivered them according to your mercies, 29 📚and admonished 📖 them, so that you might bring them back to your law. Yet they behaved arrogantly 📖, and did not listen to your commandments, but sinned against your judgments (by which a man will live if he does them), and stubbornly turned their shoulder and hardened their neck and would not listen. 30 📚Yet for many years you showed them forbearance, and admonished them by your Spirit in your prophets. Yet they would not give ear, so you gave them into the hands of the people of the lands.
31 📚Nevertheless, for the sake of your great mercies you did not make an end of them 📖 or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful 📖 God.
32 📚“Now therefore, our God 📖, the great, mighty, and awesome God, who maintains covenant and mercy, do not let all this trouble seem a small thing in your presence, this trouble 📖 that has come on us, on our kings, on our princes, on our priests, on our prophets, on our fathers, and on all your people, from the time of the kings of Assyria 📖 until this day. 33 📚However you are just in all that has happened to us, for you dealt faithfully. But we have acted wickedly. 34 📚Nor have our kings, our princes, our priests, or our fathers, kept your law or listened to your commandments and your testimonies which you gave them. 35 📚For they did not serve you in their kingdom, or in the many good things that you gave them, or in the large and rich land which you set before them; nor did they turn away from their wicked deeds 📖.
36 📚“See, we are servants today. In the land that you gave to our fathers to eat its fruit and its good things, see, we are servants 📖. 37 📚And its great produce it yields for the kings whom you have set over us 📖 because of our sins; and they have the rule over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure. And we are in great distress.
A covenant in writing
38 📚“And because of all this, we make a sure covenant 📖 and write it down, and our leaders, Levites and priests put their seals on it”.