King James VersionNehemiah9

Nehemiah

1 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. 2 And the seed of Is­rael sep­a­rat­ed them­selves from all strangers, and stood and con­fessed their sins, and the in­iq­ui­ties of their fa­thers. 3 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. 4 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. 5 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. 6 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. 7 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; 8 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: 9 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 hand 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.