Nehemiah 9
Ezra's Confession of
Israel's Sins |
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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.
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And the seed of Israel separated
themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins,
and the iniquities of their fathers.
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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.
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Then stood up upon the stairs, of the
Levites, Jesh'u-a, and Bani, Kad'mi-el, Shebani'ah, Bunni,
Sherebi'ah, Bani, and Chena'ni, and cried with a loud voice
unto the LORD their God.
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Then the Levites, Jesh'u-a, and
Kad'mi-el, Bani, Hashabni'ah, Sherebi'ah, Hodi'jah, Shebani'ah, and Pethahi'ah, 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.
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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.
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Thou art the LORD the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest
him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, Gen. 12.1 and gavest him the name of Abraham; Gen. 17.5
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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 Per'izzites, and the
Jeb'usites, and the Gir'gashites, Gen. 15.18-21 to give it, I say, to his seed, and hast performed thy
words; for thou art righteous.
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And didst see the affliction of our
fathers in Egypt, Ex. 3.7 and heardest their cry by the Red sea; Ex. 14.10-12
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and showedst signs and wonders upon
Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all the people of his land: Ex.
7.8--12.32 for
thou knewest that they dealt proudly against them. So didst thou get
thee a name, as it is this day.
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And thou didst divide the sea before
them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry
land; Ex. 14.21-29 and their persecutors thou threwest into the deeps, as a
stone into the mighty waters. Ex. 15.4, 5
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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. Ex. 13.21, 22
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Thou camest down also upon mount Si'nai,
and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments,
and true laws, good statutes and commandments:
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and madest known unto them thy holy
sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the
hand of Moses thy servant: Ex. 19.18--23.33
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and gavest them bread from heaven for
their hunger, Ex. 16.4-15 and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their
thirst, Ex. 17.1-7 and promisedst them that they should go in to possess the
land which thou hadst sworn to give them. Deut. 1.21
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But they and our fathers dealt proudly,
and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy
commandments,
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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: Num. 14.1-4 · Deut. 1.26-33 but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and
merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, Ex. 34.6 · 0.1, 1 ; 0.14 ; 8.1--0.1 and
forsookest them not.
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Yea, when they had made them a molten
calf, and said, This is thy God that brought thee up out of
Egypt, Ex. 32.1-4 and had wrought great provocations;
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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 show them light, and the way wherein
they should go.
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Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to
instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and
gavest them water for their thirst.
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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. Deut. 8.2-4
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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. Num. 21.21-35
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Their children also multipliedst thou as
the stars of heaven, Gen. 15.5 ; 22.17 and broughtest them into the land, concerning which thou
hadst promised to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it. Josh. 3.14-17
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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. Josh. 11.23
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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. Deut. 6.10, 11
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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.
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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.
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But after they had rest, they did evil
again before thee: therefore leftest thou them in the hand 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; Judg. 2.11-16
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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;) Lev.
18.5 and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck,
and would not hear.
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Yet many years didst thou forbear them,
and testifiedst against them by thy Spirit in thy prophets: yet
would they not give ear: 2 Kgs. 17.13-18 · 2 Chr.
36.15, 16 therefore gavest thou them into the hands of the people of
the lands.
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Nevertheless for thy great mercies' sake
thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God.
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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 2 Kgs. 15.19, 29 ; 17.3-6 · Ezra 4.2, 10 unto
this day.
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Howbeit thou art just in all that
is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done
wickedly:
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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.
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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.
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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:
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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.
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The People Covenant to
Keep the Law |
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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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