Nehemiah 9:1-21

New American Standard Bible

The People Confess Their Sin

9 Now on the twenty-fourth day of ^(A)this month the sons of Israel assembled ^(B)with fasting, in sackcloth and with ^(C)dirt upon them. ²The ^[a]^(D)descendants of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and they stood and ^(E)confessed their sins and the wrongdoings of their fathers. ³While ^(F)they stood in their place, they read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a fourth of the day; and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God. ⁴^(G)Now on the Levites’ platform stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani, and they cried out with a loud voice to the Lord their God.

⁵Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah said, “Arise, bless the Lord your God forever and ever!

May Your glorious name be blessed
And exalted above all blessing and praise!
⁶^(H)You alone are the Lord.
^(I)You have made the heavens,
The heaven of heavens with all their ^[b]lights,
The earth and everything that is on it,
The seas and everything that is in them.
^(J)You give life to all of them,
And the heavenly ^[c]lights bow down before You.
⁷You are the Lord God,
^(K)Who chose Abram
And brought him out from ^(L)Ur of the Chaldees,
And ^(M)gave him the name Abraham.
⁸You found ^(N)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 ^[d]descendants.
And You ^(O)have fulfilled Your ^[e]promise,
Because You are righteous.

⁹“^(P)You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt,
And ^(Q)heard their cry by the ^[f]Red Sea.
¹⁰Then You performed ^(R)signs and wonders against Pharaoh,
Against all his servants and all the people of his land;
For You knew that ^(S)they acted arrogantly toward them,
And You ^(T)made a name for Yourself as it is this day.
¹¹^(U)You divided the sea before them,
So they passed through the midst of the sea on dry ground;
And You hurled ^(V)their pursuers into the depths,
Like a stone into ^[g]raging waters.
¹²And with a pillar of cloud ^(W)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.
¹³Then ^(X)You came down on Mount Sinai,
And ^(Y)spoke with them from heaven;
You gave them ^(Z)just ordinances and true laws,
Good statutes and commandments.
¹⁴So You made known to them ^(AA)Your holy Sabbath,
And gave them commandments, statutes, and law,
Through Your servant Moses.
¹⁵You ^(AB)provided bread from heaven for them for their hunger,
You ^(AC)brought out water from a rock for them for their thirst,
And You ^(AD)told them to enter in order to take possession of
The land which You ^[h]swore to give them.

¹⁶“But they, our fathers, ^(AE)acted arrogantly;
They ^[i]^(AF)became stubborn and would not listen to Your commandments.
¹⁷They refused to listen,
And ^(AG)did not remember Your wondrous deeds which You performed among them;
So they became stubborn and ^(AH)appointed a leader to return to their slavery in ^[j]Egypt.
But You are a God ^(AI)of forgiveness,
Gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger and abounding in ^[k]mercy;
And You did not abandon them.
¹⁸Even when they ^(AJ)made for themselves
A calf of cast metal
And said, ‘This is your ^[l]god
Who brought you up from Egypt,’
And committed great blasphemies,
¹⁹^(AK)You, in Your great compassion,
Did not abandon them in the wilderness;
^(AL)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.
²⁰Instead, ^(AM)You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them,
You did not withhold Your manna from their mouth,
And You gave them water for their thirst.
²¹Indeed, for ^(AN)forty years You provided for them in the wilderness and they were not lacking;
Their clothes did not wear out, nor did their feet swell up.