Self-interpreting Bible

« back to list of books

« back to list of chapters

Nehemiah 9

1A solemn general fast and humiliation. 4The Levites make a religious confession of God's manifold goodness, and of the national sins, which had occasioned the people's miseries.


1 NOW in the twenty and fourth day of athis month the children of Israel were assembled with bfasting, and with sackclothes, and cearth upon them.

2 And the seed of Israel dseparated themselves from all 1strangers, and stood and econfessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.

3 And they stood up in their place, and fread 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 2stairs, of the Levites, gJeshua, and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani, and hcried 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, iart LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, jthe heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou kpreservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.

    7 Thou art the LORD the God, who didst choose lAbram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of mAbraham;

    8 And foundest his heart nfaithful before thee, and madest a ocovenant with him to give the land of the pCanaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his seed, and qhast performed thy words; for thou art righteous:

    9 And rdidst 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 sproudly against them. So didst thou tget thee a name, as it is this day.

    11 And uthou 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 vleddest 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 wThou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and 3true laws, good statutes and commandments:

    14 And madest known unto them thy xholy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant:

    15 And ygavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and zbroughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promisedst them that they should ago in to possess the land 4which thou hadst sworn to give them.

    16 But they and our fathers bdealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments,

    17 And refused to obey, neither cwere mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion dappointed a captain to return to their bondage: but thou art 5a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and eforsookest them not.

    18 Yea, fwhen 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 gthou 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 hgood 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 ilacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.

    22 Moreover thou jgavest them kingdoms and nations, and didst divide them into kcorners: so they possessed the land of Sihon, and the land of the king of lHeshbon, and the land of mOg king of Bashan.

    23 Their children also nmultipliedst thou as the stars of heaven, and obroughtest them into the land, concerning which thou hadst ppromised to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it.

    24 So the children went in and possessed the land, and thou qsubduedst 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 6as they would.

    25 And they took rstrong cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all goods, 7wells digged, vineyards, and oliveyards, and 8fruit trees in abundance: so they did eat, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in thy great goodness.

    26 Nevertheless they swere disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and tcast thy law behind their backs, and uslew thy prophets which testified against them to turn them to thee, and they wrought great provocations.

    27 Therefore thou vdeliveredst 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 wsaviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies.

    28 But after they had xrest, 9they did yevil 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 zmany times didst thou deliver them according to thy mercies;

    29 And atestifiedst against them, that thou bmightest bring them again unto thy law: yet they dealt proudly, and hearkened not unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments, (which cif a man do, he shall live in them;) and 10withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.

    30 Yet many years ddidst thou 11forbear them, and etestifiedst against them by thy spirit 12in thy prophets: yet would they not give ear: ftherefore gavest thou them into the hand of the people of the lands.

    31 Nevertheless for thy ggreat mercies' sake hthou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art ia gracious and merciful God.

    32 Now therefore, jour God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, kwho keepest covenant and mercy, llet not all the 13trouble seem little before thee, 14that 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 mtime of the kings of Assyria unto this day.

    33 Howbeit thou art njust in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly:

    34 Neither have oour 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 phave 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 qservants 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 rkings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins: also they shave dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.

    38 And tbecause of all this uwe make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, Levites, and priests, 15seal unto it.