Nehemiah 09 Repentance and Confession of Sin

 Nehemiah 09

Repentance and Confession of Sin

1 On the twenty-fourth day of this month the Israelites assembled, fasting and wearing sackcloth, and carrying dust on their shoulders.

2 The Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.

3 They stood at their posts and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a fourth of the day, and for a fourth of the day they made confession, and worshiped the Lord their God.

4 Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Chenani stood on the Levites’ platform and cried out with a loud voice to the Lord their God. 

5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Petachiah, said, “Stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever; now bless his glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. 

6 You alone are Lord, who made heaven, the heaven of heavens, and all their host, the earth and all that is in it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve them all alive; and the host of heaven 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 Abraham. 

8 You found his heart faithful before you, and you 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 descendants. You have confirmed 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 You showed signs and wonders to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all the people of his land, for you knew that they had dealt proudly with them. So you made a name for yourself, as it is today.

11 You divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry ground; you hurled their pursuers into the depths like a stone into the mighty waters. 

12 You led them by day with a pillar of cloud and by night with a pillar of fire, to give them light on the way they should go.

13 You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke to them from heaven, and gave them righteous judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments.

14 You made known to them your holy Sabbath, and you commanded them precepts, statutes, and laws through your servant Moses.

15 You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, and water from the rock for their thirst. You told them to go in and possess the land for which you swore to give them.

16 But they and our fathers acted proudly and stiffened their necks and did not listen to your commands. 

17 They refused to listen to you and did not remember your wonders that you had done for them. They stiffened their necks and in their rebellion set up a leader. But you, a God who forgives and is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abundant in goodness, did not forsake them. 

18 Even when they made a molten calf for themselves and said, “This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,” and committed great blasphemies, 

19 you did not leave them in the wilderness because of your great compassion. The pillar of cloud did not depart from them by day to lead them on the way, nor the pillar of fire by night to give them light and show them the way in which they should go. 

20 You gave your good spirit to instruct them, and you did not withhold your manna from their mouths. and gave them water for their thirst.

21 So you sustained them forty years in the wilderness; they lacked nothing; their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell.

22 You also gave them kingdoms and peoples, and divided them into portions; and they possessed the land of Sihon, the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.

23 And you multiplied their children as the stars of the sky, and brought them into the land of which you had said to their fathers that they would enter to possess it.

24 ​​So the children went in and took possession of the land; and you subdued the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, before them, and gave them into their hands, as well as the kings and the peoples of the land, to do with them as they pleased.

 25 They took fortified cities and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all riches, cisterns dug out, vineyards and olive groves, and trees for food in abundance; and they ate and were satisfied and grew fat, and lived in delight, because of your great goodness. 

26 But they were stubborn and rebelled against you, and cast your law behind their backs, and killed your prophets who testified against them, so that they would return to you; thus they committed great abominations. 

27 Therefore you delivered them into the hand of their oppressors, who oppressed them; but in the time of their trouble, when they cried out to you from heaven, you heard them; and according to your great mercy you gave them saviors who rescued them from the hand of their oppressors.

28 Yet when they had rest, they did evil again before you; and you left them in the hand of their enemies, so that they ruled over them. When they turned and cried out to you, you heard them from heaven, and in your mercy you often delivered them. 

29 You testified against them, telling them to return to your law. But they acted presumptuously and did not listen to your commandments, but sinned against your ordinances, by which the man who does them will live. They withdrew their shoulders and stiffened their necks, and did not listen. 

30 But you extended your lovingkindness to them for many years, and testified against them by your Spirit through your prophets, but they did not listen. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. 

31 Yet in your great mercy you did not destroy them or forsake them. for you are a gracious and merciful God.

32 Now therefore, our God, the great and mighty and awesome God, who keeps covenant and lovingkindness, do not take lightly all the affliction that has come upon us, our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers and all your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria to this day.

33 But you are righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully, while we have dealt wickedly.

34 Our kings, our princes, our priests and our fathers have not kept your law, nor have they listened to your commandments and your testimonies, which you testified against them. 

35 For they served you neither in their kingdom, nor in the great wealth that you gave them, nor in the large and fat land that you set before them, nor did they turn from their evil deeds. 

36 Behold, we are servants today; and even in the land that you gave our fathers, to eat its fruit and its goodness, behold, we are servants in it. 

37 And it multiplies its produce for the kings whom you set over us because of our sins; and they rule over our bodies and over our livestock at their will; and we are in great distress. 

38 And for all this we made a firm covenant, and wrote it; and our princes, our Levites, and our priests have sealed it.