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Chapter 9
- 9:1
- 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.
- 9:2
- And the seed of Israel separated
themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and
the iniquities of their fathers.
- 9:3
- 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.
- 9:4
- 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.
- 9:5
- 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.
- 9:6
- 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.
- 9:7
- 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;
- 9:8
- 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:
- 9:9
- And didst see the affliction of
our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry by the Red sea;
- 9:10
- 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.
- 9:11
- 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.
- 9:12
- 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.
- 9:13
- 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:
- 9:14
- And madest known unto them thy
holy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by
the hand of Moses thy servant:
- 9:15
- 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.
- 9:16
- But they and our fathers dealt
proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy
commandments,
- 9:17
- 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.
- 9:18
- 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;
- 9:19
- 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.
- 9:20
- Thou gavest also thy good spirit
to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and
gavest them water for their thirst.
- 9:21
- 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.
- 9:22
- 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.
- 9:23
- 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.
- 9:24
- 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.
- 9:25
- 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.
- 9:26
- 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.
- 9:27
- 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.
- 9:28
- But after they had rest, they did
evil again before thee: therefore leftest thou them in the land 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;
- 9:29
- 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.
- 9:30
- 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.
- 9:31
- Nevertheless for thy great
mercies' sake thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them;
for thou art a gracious and merciful God.
- 9:32
- 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.
- 9:33
- Howbeit thou art just in all that
is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done
wickedly:
- 9:34
- 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.
- 9:35
- 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.
- 9:36
- 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:
- 9:37
- 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.
- 9:38
- And because of all this we make a
sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, Levites, and priests,
seal unto it.
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