 1 In the twenty fourth day of this month, the children of Israel were gathered with fasting and with sackcloth, and with earth upon them. 2 The descendants of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins and the sins of their fathers. 3 They stood up in their place and read in the book of the Law of the Lord their God a fourth part of the day. And another fourth part they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God. 4 They stood on the stairs of the Levites, Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Chenani, and cried out with a loud voice to the Lord their God. 5 The Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, Stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever. Blessed be your glorious name that is exalted above all blessing and praise. 6 You alone are Lord. You have made the heavens, Heaven of the heavens with all their host, the earth, and everything on it, the seas, and all in them, and you preserve them all. And the host of the heavens worships you. 7 You are the Lord, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees and gave him the name of Abraham. 8 You found his heart faithful before you and made 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 have performed your words, for you are righteous. 9 You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry by the Red Sea, 10 and gave out signs and wonders upon Pharaoh and upon all his servants and upon all the people of his land. For you knew that they were acting proudly against them. So you got yourself a name, as today. 11 You divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land. And their pursuers you threw into the deep, like a stone into the mighty waters. 12 You led them in the day by a cloudy pillar and in the night by a pillar of fire to give them light for the way that they should go. 13 You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from Heaven and gave them right judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments. 14 You made known to them your holy Sabbath, and commanded them commandments, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses your servant. 15 You gave them bread from the heavens for their hunger, and brought forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst. And you promised them that they should go in to possess the land that you had sworn to give them. 16 But they and our fathers acted proudly and hardened their necks, and did not listen to your commandments. 17 They refused to obey. Nor were they mindful of your wonders that you did among them. But they hardened their necks and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage. But you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, of great kindness, and you did not forsake them. 18 When they had made a molten calf and said, This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt and worked great blasphemies, 19 yet in your great mercies you did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day nor the pillar of fire by night to lead them on the way, to show them light and the way in which they should go. 20 You also gave your good Spirit to teach them and did not withhold manna from them. And you gave them water for their thirst. 21 40 years you sustained them in the wilderness. They lacked nothing. Their clothes did not become old and their feet did not swell. 22 You gave them kingdoms and nations and divided them into corners. They possessed the land of Sihon and the land of the king of Heshbon and the land of King Og of Bashan. 23 You multiplied their sons like the stars of the heavens and brought them into the land that you had promised to their fathers that they should go in to possess it. 24 The sons went in and possessed the land and you humbled the people of the land before them, the Canaanites, and gave them to them with their kings and the people of the land so that they might do with them as they would. 25 They took strong cities and a rich land and possessed houses full of all goods, wells already dug, vineyards and olive yards, and fruit trees in abundance. They ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness. 26 But they were disobedient, rebelled against you, and cast your law behind their backs. They killed your prophets who testified against them to turn them to you and they worked great blasphemies. 27 You delivered them to their enemies who had troubled them. In the time of their trouble, they cried out to you and you heard from Heaven. According to your manifold mercies you gave them deliverers who saved them from their enemies. 28 But after they had rested, they again did evil before you and you left them in the hand of their enemies so that they had rule over them. But they returned and cried out to you and you heard from Heaven. And many times you delivered them according to your mercies, 29 and testified against them that you might bring them again to your law. But they acted proudly and did not listen to your commandments, but sinned against your judgments that if a man do, he will live in them, and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear. 30 Many years you had patience with them, and testified against them by your Spirit, by your prophets, but they would not give ear. And you gave them into the hand of the people of the lands. 31 But for your great mercies, you did not completely destroy them nor forsake them. For you are a gracious and merciful God. 32 Now, our God, the great, the mighty, and the fearful God, who keeps covenant and mercy, do not let all the trouble that has come upon us, on our kings, on our rulers, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria to this day, seem little before you. 33 But you are just in all that is brought upon us, for you have done right, but we have done wickedly. 34 Our kings, our rulers, our priests, and our fathers, have not kept your law, nor listened to your commandments and your words with which you testified against them. 35 For they have not served you in their kingdom, and in your great goodness that you gave them, and in the large and rich land that you gave before them, and they did not turn from their wicked works. 36 Behold, we are servants today. And the land that you gave to our fathers to eat its fruit, and its good, behold, we are servants in it. 37 It yields much increase to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins. They rule over our bodies and over our cattle at their pleasure and we are in great distress. 38 Because of all this we are making a sure covenant and write it and our princes, Levites, and priests are sealing it.
|