9:1 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.
9:2 And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all
strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the
iniquities of their fathers.
9:3 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 worshiped the LORD
their God.
9:4 Then stood upon the stairs, of the Levites, Jeshua, and
Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, [and]
Chenani, and cried with a loud voice to the LORD their God.
9:5 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.
9:6 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] in it, the seas, and all that [is] in them,
and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshipeth
thee.
9:7 Thou [art] the LORD the God, who chosest Abram, and
broughtest him forth from Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him
the name of Abraham;
9:8 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:
9:9 And thou sawest the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and
heardest their cry by the Red sea;
9:10 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.
9:11 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.
9:12 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 in which they should go.
9:13 Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spokest with
them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true
laws, good statutes and commandments:
9:14 And madest known to them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst
them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy
servant:
9:15 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.
9:16 But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their
necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments,
9:17 And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders
that thou didst perform 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.
9:18 Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This
[is] thy God that brought thee out of Egypt, and had wrought
great provocations;
9:19 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 show them light, and the way in which they should go.
9:20 Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and
withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them
water for their thirst.
9:21 Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness,
[so that] they lacked nothing; their clothes grew not old, and
their feet swelled not.
9:22 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.
9:23 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].
9:24 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.
9:25 And they took strong cities, and a fat land, and possessed
houses full of all goods, wells digged, vineyards and
olive-yards, and fruit trees in abundance: so they ate and were
filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in thy great
goodness.
9:26 Nevertheless, they were disobedient, and rebelled against
thee, and cast thy law behind their backs, and slew thy
prophets who testified against them to turn them to thee, and
they wrought great provocations.
9:27 Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their
enemies, who distressed them: and in the time of their trouble,
when they cried to thee, thou hearedest [them] from heaven; and
according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them deliverers,
who saved them out of the hand of their enemies.
9:28 But after they had rest, they did evil again before thee:
therefore thou leftest them in the hand of their enemies, so
that they had the dominion over them: yet when they returned
and cried to thee, thou hearedest [them] from heaven; and many
times didst thou deliver them according to thy mercies;
9:29 And testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring them
again to thy law: yet they dealt proudly, and hearkened not to
thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments, (which if a
man doeth, he shall live in them:) and withdrew the shoulder,
and hardened their neck, and would not hear.
9:30 Yet many years didst thou forbear over them, and
testifiedst against them by thy spirit in thy prophets: yet
would they not give ear: therefore thou gavest them into the
hand of the people of the lands.
9:31 Nevertheless, for thy great mercies' sake thou didst not
utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou [art] a
gracious and merciful God.
9:32 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 to this day.
9:33 But thou [art] just in all that is brought upon us; for
thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly:
9:34 Neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our
fathers, kept thy law, nor hearkened to thy commandments and
thy testimonies, with which thou didst testify against them.
9:35 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.
9:36 Behold, we [are] servants this day, and [for] the land that
thou gavest to our fathers to eat the fruit of it and the good
of it, behold, we [are] servants in it:
9:37 And it yieldeth much increase to 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.
9:38 And because of all this we make a sure [covenant], and
write [it]; and our princes, Levites, [and] priests, set their
seals [to it].
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