Read the Bible

¹ Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the sons of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackcloth, and earth on them.² And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, 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 Yahweh their God a fourth part of the day; and [another] fourth part they confessed, and worshiped Yahweh their God.

⁴ Then stood up on the stairs of the Levites, Jeshua, and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, [and] Chenani, and cried with a loud voice to Yahweh their God.⁵ Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, [and] Pethahiah, said, Stand up and bless Yahweh your God from everlasting to everlasting; and let them bless your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.⁶ You are Yahweh, even you alone; you have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all things that are thereon, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all; and the host of heaven worships you.⁷ You are Yahweh the God, who chose Abram, and brought him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gave him the name of Abraham,⁸ and found his heart faithful before you, and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite, and the Girgashite, to give it to his seed, and have performed your words; for you are righteous.⁹ And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry by the Red Sea,¹⁰ and showed signs and wonders on Pharaoh, and on all his slaves, and on all the people of his land; for you knew that they dealt proudly against them, and you made a name for yourself, as it is this day.¹¹ And you divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their pursuers you cast into the depths, as 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 in the way wherein they should go.¹³ You came down also on mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments,¹⁴ and made known to them your holy Sabbath, and commanded them commandments, and statutes, and a law, by Moses your slave,¹⁵ and gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, and brought forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and commanded them that they should go in to possess the land which you had sworn to give them.¹⁶ But they and our fathers dealt proudly and hardened their neck, and didn't listen to your commandments,¹⁷ and refused to obey, neither were mindful of your wonders that you did among them, but hardened their neck, and in Egypt appointed a captain to return to their slavery. But you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving-kindness, and did not forsake them.¹⁸ Yes, when they had made themselves a molten calf, and said, This is your God that brought you up out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations;¹⁹ yet you in your manifold mercies 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; neither the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way wherein they should go.²⁰ You gave also your good Spirit to instruct them, and didn't withhold your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst.²¹ Yes, forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, [and] they lacked nothing; their clothes didn't wax old, and their feet didn't swell.²² Moreover you gave them kingdoms and peoples, which you allotted after their portions: so they possessed the land of Sihon, even the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.²³ You also multiplied their sons as the stars of heaven, and brought them into the land concerning which you said to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it.²⁴ So the sons went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands, with their kings, and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would.²⁵ And they took fortified cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all good things, cisterns cut out, vineyards, and oliveyards, and fruit-trees in abundance: so they ate, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in your great goodness.²⁶ Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against you, and cast your law behind their back, and slew your prophets that testified against them to turn themselves again to you, and they wrought great provocations.²⁷ Therefore you delivered them into the hand of their adversaries, who distressed them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried to you, you heard from heaven; and according to your manifold mercies you gave them saviors who saved them out of the hand of their adversaries.²⁸ But after they had rest, they did evil again before you; therefore you left them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had the dominion over them: yet when they returned, and cried to you, you heard from heaven; and many times you delivered them according to your mercies,²⁹ and testified against them, that you might bring them again to your law. Yet they dealt proudly, and didn't listen to your commandments, but sinned against your ordinances, which if man does, he shall live in them, and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.³⁰ Yet many years you bore with them, and testified against 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 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, don't let all the travail seem little before you, that has come on us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria to this day.³³ Nevertheless you are just in all that has come on us; for you have dealt truly, but we have done wickedly;³⁴ neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept your law, nor listened to your commandments and your testimonies with which you testified against 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 fat land which you gave before them, neither did they turn from their wicked works.³⁶ Look, we are slaves this day, and as for the land that you gave to our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, see, we are slaves in it.³⁷ And 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 cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.³⁸ And yet for all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, our Levites, [and] our priests, seal to it.