The Israelites fast and confess their sins. The Levites lead a long prayer recounting God's goodness from creation and Abraham through the exodus, wilderness and conquest, and Israel's repeated rebellion, and God's mercy.
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.
2 And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers , and stood and confessed their sins , and the iniquities of their fathers .
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 worshipped the LORD their God .
4 Then stood up upon the stairs , of the Levites , Jeshua , and Bani , Kadmiel , Shebaniah , Bunni , Sherebiah , Bani , and Chenani , and cried 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, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven , the heaven of heavens , with all their host , the earth , and all things that are therein, the seas , and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.
7 Thou art the LORD the God , who didst choose Abram , and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees , and gavest him the name of Abraham ;
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 And didst 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 proudly against them. So didst thou get thee a name , as it is this day .
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 .
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 wherein they should go .
13 Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai , and spakest with them from heaven , and gavest them right judgments , and true laws , good statutes and commandments :
14 And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath , and commandedst them precepts , statutes , and laws , by the hand of Moses thy servant :
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.
16 But they and our fathers dealt proudly , and hardened their necks , and hearkened not to thy commandments ,
17 And refused to obey , neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst 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.
18 Yea, when 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 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 shew them light , and the way wherein they should go .
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 .
21 Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness , so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old , and their feet swelled not.
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 .
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.
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 .
25 And they took strong cities , and a fat land , and possessed houses full of all goods , wells digged , vineyards , and oliveyards , and fruit trees in abundance : so they did eat , and were filled , and became fat , and delighted themselves in thy great goodness .
26 Nevertheless they were disobedient , and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their backs , and slew thy prophets which testified against them to turn them to thee, and they wrought great provocations .
27 Therefore thou deliveredst 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 saviours , who saved them out of the hand of their enemies .
28 But after they had rest , they did evil 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 many times didst thou deliver them according to thy mercies ;
29 And testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring them again unto thy law : yet they dealt proudly , and hearkened not unto thy commandments , but sinned against thy judgments ,(which if a man do , he shall live in them;) and withdrew the shoulder , and hardened their neck , and would not hear .
30 Yet many years didst thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them by thy spirit in thy prophets : yet would they not give ear : therefore gavest thou them into the hand of the people of the lands .
31 Nevertheless for thy great mercies ' sake thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God .
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 unto this day .
33 Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right , but we have done wickedly :
34 Neither have our 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 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 .
36 Behold, we are servants 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 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 .
38 And because of all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes , Levites , and priests , seal unto it.