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Nehemias 9
And in the four and twentieth day of the month the children
of Israel came together with fasting and with sackcloth,
and earth upon them.
And the seed of the children of Israel separated themselves
from every stranger: and they stood, and confessed their
sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.
And they rose up to stand: and they read in the book
of the law of the Lord their God, four times in the
day, and four times they confessed, and adored the Lord
their God.
And there stood up upon the seep of the Levites, Josue,
and Bani, and Cedmihel, Sabania, Bonni, Sarebias, Bani,
and Chanani: and they cried with a loud voice to the
Lord their God.
And the Levites Josue and Cedmihel, Bonni, Hasebnia,
Serebia, Oduia, Sebnia, and Phathahia, said: Arise,
bless the Lord your God from eternity to eternity: and
blessed be the high name of thy glory with all blessing
and praise.
Thou thyself, O Lord alone, thou hast made heaven, and
the heaven of heavens, and all the host thereof: the
earth and all things that are in it: the seas and all
that are therein: and thou givest life to all these
things, and the host of heaven adoreth thee.
Thou, O Lord God, art he who chosest Abram, and broughtest
him forth out of the fire of the Chaldeans, and gavest
him the name of Abraham.
And thou didst find his heart faithful before thee:
and thou madest a covenant with him, to give him the
land of the Chanaanite, of the Hethite, and of the Amorrhite,
and of the Pherezite, and of the Jebusite, and of the
Gergezite, to give it to his seed: and thou hast fulfilled
thy words, because thou art just.
And thou sawest the affliction of our fathers in Egypt:
and thou didst hear their cry by the Red Sea.
And thou shewedst signs and wonders upon Pharao, and
upon all his servants, and upon the people of his land
: for thou knewest that they dealt proudly against them:
and thou madest thyself a name, as it is at this day.
And thou didst divide the sea before them, and they
passed through the midst of the sea on dry land: but
their persecutors thou threwest into the depth, as a
stone into mighty waters.
And in a pillar of a cloud thou wast their leader by
day, and in a pillar of Are by night, that they might
see the way by which they went.
Thou camest down also to mount Sinai, and didst speak
with them from heaven, and thou gavest them right judgments,
and the law of truth, ceremonies, and good precepts.
Thou madest known to them thy holy sabbath, and didst
prescribe to them commandments, and ceremonies, and
the law by the hand of Moses thy servant.
And thou gavest them bread from heaven in their hunger,
and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock
in their thirst, and thou saidst to them that they should
go in, and possess the land, upon which thou hadst lifted
up thy hand to give it them.
But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened
their necks and hearkened not to thy commandments.
And they would not hear, and they remembered not thy
wonders which thou hadst done for them. And they hardened
their necks, and gave the head to return to their bondage,
as it were by contention. But thou, a forgiving God,
gracious, and merciful, longsuffering, and full of compassion,
didst not forsake them.
Yea when they had made also to themselves a molten calf,
and had said: This is thy God, that brought thee out
of Egypt: and hail committed great blasphemies :
Yet thou, in thy many mercies, didst not leave them
in the desert: the pillar of the cloud departed not
from them by day to lead them in the way, and the pillar
of fire by night to shew them the way by which they
should go.
And thou gavest them thy good Spirit to teach them,
and thy manna thou didst not withhold from their mouth,
and thou gavest them water for their thirst.
Forty years didst thou feed them in the desert, and
nothing was wanting to them: their garments did not
grow old, and their feet were not worn.
And thou gavest them kingdoms, and nations, and didst
divide lots for them: and they possessed the land of
Sehon, and the land of the king of Hesebon, and the
land of Og king of Basan.
And thou didst multiply their children as the stars
of heaven, and broughtest them to the land concerning
which thou hadst said to their fathers, that they should
go in and possess it.
And the children came and possessed the land, and thou
didst humble before them the inhabitants of the land,
the Chanaanites, and gavest them into their hands, with
their kings, and the people of the land, that they might
do with them as it pleased them.
And they took strong cities and a fat land, and possessed
houses full of all goods: cisterns made by others, vine-
yards, and oliveyards, and fruit trees in abundance:
and they ate, and were filled, and became fat, and abounded
with de- light in thy great goodness.
But they provoked thee to wrath, and departed from thee,
and threw thy law behind their backs: and they killed
thy prophets, who admonished them earnestly to return
to thee : and they were guilty of great blasphemies.
And thou gavest them into the hands of their enemies,
and they afflicted them. And in the time of their tribulation
they cried to thee, and thou heardest from heaven, and
according to the multitude of thy tender mercies thou
gavest them saviours, to save them from the hands of
their enemies.
But after they had rest, they returned to do evil in
thy sight : and thou leftest them in the hand of their
enemies, and they had dominion over them. Then they
returned, and cried to thee: and thou heardest from
heaven, and deliveredst them many times in thy mercies.
And thou didst admonish them to re turn to thy law.
But they dealt proudly, and hearkened not to thy commandments,
but sinned against thy judgments, which if a man do,
he shall live in them: and they withdrew the shoulder,
and hardened their neck, and would not hear.
And thou didst forbear with them for many years, and
didst testify against them by thy spirit by the hand
of thy prophets: and they heard not, and thou didst
deliver them into the hand of the people of the lands.
Yet in thy very many mercies thou didst not utterly
consume them, nor forsake them: because thou art a merciful
and gracious God.
Now therefore our God, great, strong and terrible, who
keepest covenant and mercy, turn not away from thy face
all the labour which hath come upon us, upon our kings,
and our princes, and our priests, and our prophets,
and our fathers, and all the people from the days of
the king of Assur, until this day.
And thou art just in all things that have come upon
us: because thou hast done truth, but we have done wickedly.
Our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers
have not kept thy law, and have not minded thy commandments,
and thy testimonies which thou hast testified among
them.
And they have not served thee in their kingdoms, and
in thy manifold goodness, which thou gavest them, and
in the large and fat land, which thou deliveredst before
them, nor did they return from their most wicked devices.
Behold we ourselves this day are bondmen: and the land,
which thou gavest our fathers, to eat the bread thereof,
and the good things thereof, and we ourselves are servants
in it.
And the fruits thereof grow up for the kings, whom thou
hast set over us for our sins, and they have dominion
over our bodies, and over our beasts, according to their
will, and we are in great tribulation.
and because of all this we ourselves make a covenant,
and write it, and our princes, our Levites, and our
priests sign it. |
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