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Nehemiah 9
Neh
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Chapter 9
The ceremony of atonement
1
On the twenty-fourth day of this month the Israelites, in sackcloth and with dust on their heads, assembled for a fast.
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Those of Israelite stock separated themselves from all those of foreign origin; they stood confessing their sins and the transgressions of their ancestors.
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(Standing, each man in his right position, they read from the Book of the Law of Yahweh their God for one quarter of the day; for another quarter they confessed their sins and prostrated themselves before Yahweh their God.)[*a]
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(On the Levites’ platform stood Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Chenani, calling loudly to Yahweh their God;
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and the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah said, ‘Arise and bless Yahweh our God’.) Blessed be you, Yahweh our God, from everlasting to everlasting. And blessed be your name of glory that surpasses all blessing and praise.
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Yahweh, you are the only one. You made the heavens, the heaven of heavens, with all their array, the earth and all it bears, the seas and all they hold. To all of these you give life and the array of the heavens bows down before you.
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Yahweh, you are the God who chose Abram, brought him out from Ur in Chaldaea, and gave him the name of Abraham.
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Finding him faithful of heart before you, you made a covenant with him, to give him the land of the Canaanite, of the Hittite and Amorite, of the Perizzite, Jebusite, Girgashite, to him and his posterity. And you kept your promise because you are just.
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You saw the distress of our fathers in Egypt, you heard their cry by the Sea of Reeds.
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You worked portents and miracles against Pharaoh, against his servants and all the people of his land; for you knew how they treated them with arrogance. You won a reputation which you keep to this day.
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You divided the sea in front of them: they passed through the deep sea dry-shod. Into the depths you hurled their pursuers like a stone into rushing waters.
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With a pillar of cloud you led them by day, with a pillar of fire by night: to light the way ahead of them by which they should go.
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You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven; you gave them ordinances that are just, laws that are sure, good statutes and commandments;
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you taught them to know your holy sabbath, laid down for them commandments (statutes) and Law through Moses your servant.
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For their hunger you gave them bread from heaven, for their thirst you brought them water spurting from the rock. You bade them go in and take possession of the land that you had sworn to give to them.
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But our fathers grew proud, were obstinate, and flouted your commands.
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They refused to obey, forgetful of the wonders that you had worked for them; they became obstinate, they even thought of going back to Egypt and their slavery. But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and loving, slow to anger, abounding in goodness, you did not forsake them.
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When they cast themselves a calf out of molten metal and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up from Egypt’ (and were guilty of grave blasphemies),
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you, so greatly loving, still did not forsake them in the wilderness: the pillar of cloud did not leave them that led them on their path by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, to light the way ahead of them by which they should go.
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You gave them your good spirit to make them wise, you did not withhold your manna from their mouths, you gave them water for their thirst.
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Forty years you cared for them in the wilderness: they went short of nothing, their clothes did not wear out, their feet were not swollen.
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You gave to them kingdoms and peoples, allotted them these as frontier regions; they occupied the land of Sihon king of Heshbon, and of Og king of Bashan.
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You multiplied their sons as the stars of heaven and led them to the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess.
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The sons invaded and conquered the land, and before them you humbled the land’s inhabitants, the Canaanites, whom you gave into their hands; with their kings and the population of that country, to be treated just as they pleased;
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they captured fortified towns and a fertile countryside, took possession of houses stocked with all kinds of goods, of cisterns ready-hewn, of vineyards and olive groves, of fruit trees in profusion; they ate, ate their fill, regaling themselves on the good things you lavished on them.
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But, disobedient as they were and rebellious towards you, they thrust the Law behind their backs, they killed the prophets who admonished them to bring them back to you (and were guilty of grave blasphemies).
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So you delivered them into the hands of their oppressors who oppressed them. In the days of their oppression they cried to you, and from heaven you heard them and, greatly loving, you granted them saviours who freed them from the hands of their oppressors.
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But, once at peace, again they did wrong before you and you gave them over to the hands of their enemies who treated them tyrannically. And once more they cried to you and from heaven you heard them: how often are you, so loving, to deliver them?
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You admonished them to bring them back to your Law; but they grew proud, they did not obey your commandments, they sinned against your ordinances in which a man finds life if he observes them; they shrugged their shoulders, they were obstinate, they would not obey.
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You were patient with them for many years; you admonished them by your spirit through your prophets, but they would not listen. You delivered them then into the hands of the natives of the countries.
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But, greatly loving, you did not make an end of them, you did not forsake them, for you are a gracious and a loving God.
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Now therefore, our God, great and mighty God who must be feared, maintaining your covenant and your kindness, count as no small thing this misery that has happened to us, our kings, our leaders, our priests, our prophets, and all your people from the time of the kings of Assyria to the present day.
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You have been just in all that has happened to us, for you have shown your faithfulness, we our wickedness:
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our kings, our leaders, our priests and our fathers have not kept your Law, they have been unmindful of your commandments and the warnings that you gave them.
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While they were in their kingdom with the good things you lavished on them, in the wide and fertile land that you had set before them, they did not renounce their evil deeds.
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Here are we now, enslaved; here in the land you gave our fathers to enjoy its fruits and its good things, we are slaves.
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Its rich fruits swell the profit of the kings whom for our sins you have set over us, who dispose as they please of our bodies and our cattle. Such the distress we endure!
Chapters of Nehemiah
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
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