The People Confess their Sins
1 Now on the 24th day of this month the Israelites had assembled together, and they were fasting and wearing sackcloth and had covered themselves with dirt. 2 The offspring of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. 3 They stood up in their place and read in the book of the law of the Lord their God one fourth of the day, and for one fourth they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God. 4 Then Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani of the Levites stood up on the stairs and cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God.
5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting!
Blessed be your glorious name,
which is exalted above all blessing and praise!
6 You are the Lord, you alone.
You have made heaven,
the heaven of heavens with all their host,
the earth and all things that are on it,
the seas and all that is in them,
and you preserve them all.
The host of heaven worships you.
7 You are the Lord,
the God who chose Abram,
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 and the Hittite,
the Amorite and the Perizzite,
the Jebusite and the Girgashite,
to give it to his offspring
and have kept your promise,
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 against Pharaoh,
against all his servants and against all the people of his land,
for you knew that they dealt proudly against them.
You made a name for yourself that remains to this today.
11 You divided the sea before them
so that they went through the middle of the sea on the dry land.
You cast their pursuers into the depths,
like a stone into the mighty waters.
12 Moreover, in a pillar of cloud you led them by day,
and in a pillar of fire by night,
to give them light on the way in which they should go.
13 You also came down on Mount Sinai
and spoke with them from heaven
and gave them right ordinances and true laws,
good statutes and commandments.
14 You made known to them your holy Sabbath
and gave them commandments, statutes, and a law,
through Moses your servant.
15 You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger
and brought water out of the rock for them for their thirst.
You commanded them that they should go in to possess the land
which you had sworn to give them.
16 But they and our fathers behaved proudly,
hardened their heart,
did not listen to your commandments,
17 and refused to obey.
They were not mindful of your wonders
that you did among them,
but hardened their heart
and in their rebellion appointed a leader
to return to their bondage.
But you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness;
and you did not forsake them.
18 Yes, when they had made themselves a molded calf
and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’
and had committed awful blasphemies,
19 yet in your manifold mercies,
you did not forsake them in the wilderness.
The pillar of cloud did not depart from over them by day,
to lead them in the way, nor did the pillar of fire by night,
to show them light and the way in which they should go.
20 You gave also your good Spirit to instruct them
and did not withhold your manna from their mouth
and gave them water for their thirst.
21 Yes, for 40 years you sustained them in the wilderness.
They lacked nothing.
Their clothes did not grow old,
and their feet did not swell.
22 Moreover you gave them kingdoms and peoples,
which you allotted according to their portions.
So they possessed the land of Sihon,
the land of the king of Heshbon,
and the land of Og king of Bashan.
23 You also multiplied their children
like the stars of the sky
and brought them into the land
concerning which you said to their fathers,
that they should go in to possess it.
24 So their descendants went in and possessed the land.
You subdued before them, the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites.
You delivered them into their hands,
with their kings and the peoples of the land,
that they might do with them as they pleased.
25 They took fortified cities and a rich land
and possessed houses full of all good things,
cisterns dug out, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance.
So they ate, were filled, became fat,
and delighted themselves in your great goodness.
26 Nevertheless they were disobedient and rebelled against you,
cast your law behind their back,
killed your prophets that testified against them
to turn them again to you;
and they committed awful blasphemies.
27 Therefore you delivered them into the hand
of their adversaries who distressed them.
In the time of their trouble, they cried to you.
You heard from heaven.
According to your manifold mercies you gave them saviors
who saved them from the hands of their adversaries.
28 But after they had rest,
they did evil again before you.
Therefore you left them in the hands of their enemies,
so that they had dominion over them.
When they returned and cried to you,
you heard from heaven.
Many times you delivered them
according to your mercies.
29 You admonished them,
that you might bring them back to your law.
Yet they were arrogant and did not listen to your commandments,
but sinned against your ordinances,
which if a man does, he shall live in them.
They turned their backs, hardened their hearts, and would not hear.
30 Yet for many years you put up with them,
and admonished them by your Spirit through your prophets.
Yet they would not listen.
Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.
31 Nevertheless in your manifold mercies
you did not make a full end of them,
nor forsake them,
for you are a gracious and merciful God.
32 Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God,
who keeps covenant and loving kindness,
do not let all the travail seem small before you,
that has come on us, on our kings,
on our princes, on our priests, on our prophets,
on our fathers, and on all your people,
since the time of the kings of Assyria to this day.
33 However you are just in all that has come on us,
for you have dealt truly,
but we have done wickedly.
34 Also our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers
have not kept your law,
nor listened to your commandments
and your testimonies with which you admonished 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
which you gave before them,
they did not turn from their wicked ways.
36 We are slaves today,
and as for the land that you gave to our fathers
to eat of its fruit and its good things,
we are slaves in it.
37 It yields much increase to the kings
whom you have set over us because of our sins.
Also they have power over our bodies
and over our livestock, at their pleasure,
and we are in great distress.
38 In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement and writing it, and our leaders, our Levites, and our priests, seal it.”