¹³ Then on the second day the heads of fathers' households of all the people, the priests and the Levites were gathered to Ezra the scribe that they might gain insight into the words of the law. ¹⁴ They found written in the law how the LORD had commanded through Moses that the sons of Israel should live in booths during the feast of the seventh month. ¹⁵ So ^F96 they proclaimed and circulated a proclamation in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, "Go out to the hills, and bring olive branches and wild olive branches, myrtle branches, palm branches and branches of other leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written." ¹⁶ So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the Water Gate and in the square at the Gate of Ephraim. ¹⁷ The entire assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in them. The sons of Israel had indeed not done so from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day. And there was great rejoicing. ¹⁸ He read from the book of the law of God daily, from the first day to the last day. And they celebrated the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the ordinance.
 

The People Confess Their Sin

⁵ Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah, said, "Arise, bless the LORD your God forever and ever! O may Your glorious name be blessed And exalted above all blessing and praise!

⁶ "You alone are the LORD.

You have made the heavens,

The heaven of heavens with all their host,

The earth and all that is on it,

The seas and all that is in them.

You give life to all of them

And the heavenly host bows down before You.

⁷ "You are the LORD God,

Who chose Abram

And brought him out from Ur of the Chaldees,

And gave him the name Abraham.

⁸ "You found his heart faithful before You,

And made a covenant with him

To give him the land of the Canaanite,

Of the Hittite and the Amorite,

Of the Perizzite, the Jebusite and the Girgashite--

To give it to his descendants.

And You have fulfilled 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 "Then You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh,

Against all his servants and all the people of his land;

For You knew that they acted arrogantly toward them,

And made a name for Yourself as it is this day.

¹¹ "You divided the sea before them,

So they passed through the midst of the sea on dry ground;

And their pursuers You hurled into the depths,

Like a stone into raging waters.

¹² "And with a pillar of cloud You led them by day,

And with a pillar of fire by night

To light for them the way

In which they were to go.

¹³ "Then You came down on Mount Sinai,

And spoke with them from heaven;

You gave them just ordinances and true laws,

Good statutes and commandments.

¹⁴ "So You made known to them Your holy sabbath,

And laid down for them commandments, statutes and law,

Through Your servant Moses.

¹⁵ "You provided bread from heaven for them for their hunger,

You brought forth water from a rock for them for their thirst,

And You told them to enter in order to possess

The land which You swore to give them.

¹⁶ "But they, our fathers, acted arrogantly;

They became ^F104 stubborn and would not listen to Your commandments.

¹⁷ "They refused to listen,

And did not remember Your wondrous deeds which You had performed among them;

So they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.

But You are a God of forgiveness,

Gracious and compassionate,

Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness;

And You did not forsake them.

¹⁸ "Even when they made for themselves

A calf of molten metal

And said, `This is your God

Who brought you up from Egypt,'

And committed great blasphemies,

¹⁹ You, in Your great compassion,

Did not forsake them in the wilderness;

The pillar of cloud did not leave them by day,

To guide them on their way,

Nor the pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way in which they were to go.

²⁰ "You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them,

Your manna You did not withhold from their mouth,

And You gave them water for their thirst.

²¹ "Indeed, forty years You provided for them in the wilderness and they were not in want;

Their clothes did not wear out, nor did their feet swell.

²² "You also gave them kingdoms and peoples,

And allotted them to them as a boundary.

They took possession of the land of Sihon the king of Heshbon

And the land of Og the king of Bashan.

²³ "You made their sons numerous as the stars of heaven,

And You brought them into the land

Which You had told their fathers to enter and possess.

²⁴ "So their sons entered and possessed the land.

And You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites,

And You gave them into their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land,

To do with them as they desired.

²⁵ "They captured fortified cities and a fertile ^F110 land.

They took possession of houses full of every good thing,

Hewn cisterns, vineyards, olive groves,

Fruit trees in abundance.

So they ate, were filled and grew fat,

And reveled in Your great goodness.

²⁶ "But they became disobedient and rebelled against You,

And cast Your law behind their backs

And killed Your prophets who had admonished them

So that they might return to You,

And they committed great blasphemies.

²⁷ "Therefore You delivered them into the hand of their oppressors who oppressed them,

But when they cried to You in the time of their distress,

You heard from heaven, and according to Your great compassion

You gave them deliverers who delivered them from the hand of their oppressors.

²⁸ "But as soon as they had rest, they did evil again before You;

Therefore You abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so that they ruled over them.

When they cried again to You, You heard from heaven,

And many times You rescued them according to Your compassion,

²⁹ And admonished them in order to turn them back to Your law.

Yet they acted arrogantly and did not listen to Your commandments but sinned against Your ordinances,

By which if a man observes them he shall live.

And they turned ^F112 a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck, and would not listen.

³⁰ "However, You bore with them for many years,

And admonished them by Your Spirit through Your prophets,

Yet they would not give ear.

Therefore You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.

³¹ "Nevertheless, in Your great compassion You did not make an end of them or forsake them,

For You are a gracious and compassionate God.

³² "Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and lovingkindness,

Do not let all the hardship seem insignificant before You,

Which has come upon us, our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers and on all Your people,

From the days of the kings of Assyria to this day.

³³ "However, You are just in all that has come upon us;

For You have dealt faithfully, but we have acted wickedly.

³⁴ "For our kings, our leaders, our priests and our fathers have not kept Your law

Or paid attention to Your commandments and Your admonitions with which You have admonished them.

³⁵ "But they, in their own kingdom,

With Your great goodness which You gave them,

With the broad and rich land which You set before them,

Did not serve You or turn from their evil deeds.

³⁶ "Behold, we are slaves today,

And as to the land which You gave to our fathers to eat of its fruit and its bounty,

Behold, we are slaves in it.

³⁷ "Its abundant produce is for the kings

Whom You have set over us because of our sins;

They also rule over our bodies

And over our cattle as they please,

So we are in great distress.

A Covenant Results

³⁸ "Now because of all this

We are making an agreement in writing;

And on the sealed document are the names of our leaders, our Levites and our priests."

The Psalmist's Profession of Uprightness.

A Psalm of David.

¹ I will sing of lovingkindness and justice,

To You, O LORD, I will sing praises.

² I will give ^F1069 heed to the blameless way.

When will You come to me?

I will walk within my house in the integrity ^F1071 of my heart.

³ I will set no worthless thing before my eyes;

I hate the work of those who fall away;

It shall not fasten its grip on me.

⁴ A perverse heart shall depart from me;

I will know no evil.

⁵ Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy;

No one who has a haughty look and an arrogant heart will I endure.

⁶ My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me;

He who walks in a blameless ^F1074 way is the one who will minister to me.

⁷ He who practices deceit shall not dwell within my house;

He who speaks falsehood shall not maintain his position before me.

⁸ Every morning I will destroy ^F1076 all the wicked of the land,

So as to cut off from the city of the LORD all those who do iniquity.

The First Seal--Rider on White Horse

The Second Seal--War

³ When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, "Come." ⁴ And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him.

The Third Seal--Famine

⁵ When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, "Come." I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. ⁶ And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine."

The Fourth Seal--Death

⁷ When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, "Come." ⁸ I looked, and behold, an ashen ^F63 horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.

The Fifth Seal--Martyrs

⁹ When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; ¹⁰ and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, ^F65 holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" ¹¹ And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.

The Sixth Seal--Terror

¹² I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; ¹³ and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. ¹⁴ The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. ¹⁵ Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; ¹⁶ and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; ¹⁷ for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"