1 Now on the twenty-fourth day ofv[ch. 8:2] this month the people of Israel were assembledw[1 Sam. 7:6] with fastingxSee 2 Sam. 3:31 and in sackcloth,ySee Josh. 7:6 and with earth on their heads. 2 zch. 10:28; 13:3, 30; [Ezra 6:21; 10:11] And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. 3 ach. 8:7, 8 And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God. 4 On the stairs of the Levites stoodb[ch. 8:7] Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani; and they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God. 5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting.c[1 Chr. 29:13] Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.
6 dSee 2 Kgs. 19:15 You are the Lord, you alone.eSee Gen. 1:1 You have made heaven,fSee Deut. 10:14 the heaven of heavens,gSee Gen. 2:1 with all their host,eSee Gen. 1:1 the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them;h[Ps. 36:6] and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you. 7 You are the Lord, the GodiSee Gen. 11:31 who chose Abram and brought him out ofjGen. 11:31 Ur of the ChaldeanskGen. 17:5 and gave him the name Abraham. 8 lGen. 15:6 You found his heart faithful before you,mGen. 12:7; 15:18; 17:7-9 and made with him the covenant to give to his offspringnSee Ex. 13:5 the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite.o[Josh. 23:14] And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous.
9 pEx. 3:7 And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heardqEx. 14:10 their cry at the Red Sea, 10 rSee Ex. 7–14 and performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for you knew thatsEx. 18:11 they acted arrogantly against our fathers. AndtIsa. 63:12, 14; Jer. 32:20; Dan. 9:15; [Ex. 9:16] you made a name for yourself, as it is to this day. 11 uEx. 14:21, 22, 27, 28; Ps. 78:13 And you divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land, and you cast their pursuers into the depths,vEx. 15:5, 10 as a stone into mighty waters. 12 Bywver. 19; Ex. 13:21, 22; Num. 14:14; 1 Cor. 10:1 a pillar of cloud you led them in the day, and by a pillar of fire in the night to light for them the way in which they should go. 13 xEx. 19:20 You came down on Mount SinaiySee Ex. 20:1-17 and spoke with them from heaven and gave themzPs. 19:8, 9; [Rom. 7:12]; See Ps. 119 right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments, 14 aEx. 16:23; 20:8-11; [Gen. 2:2, 3; Ezek. 20:12, 20] and you made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them commandments and statutes and a law by Moses your servant. 15 b[Ex. 16:14, 15; Ps. 78:25; 105:40; 1 Cor. 10:3]; Cited John 6:31 You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger andcEx. 17:6; Num. 20:10; Ps. 78:15-17; 105:41; 1 Cor. 10:4 brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and youdDeut. 1:8 told them to go in to possess the land that you had sworn to give them.
16 But they and our fatherseEx. 18:11 acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. 17 They refused to obeyfPs. 78:11, 42, 43 and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive,gver. 31; Ex. 34:6; Num. 14:18; Ps. 86:5, 15; Joel 2:13 gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. 18 EvenhEx. 32:4; Ps. 106:19, 20; Acts 7:41 when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt, ’iver. 26; Ps. 78:41, 58; [Heb. 3:15] and had committed great blasphemies, 19 youjver. 27, 31; Ps. 106:45 in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness.kSee ver. 12 The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day,kSee ver. 12 nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. 20 lIsa. 63:11; [Num. 11:17] You gave your good Spirit to instruct themm[Ex. 16:35]; See ver. 15 and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. 21 nDeut. 2:7 Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.
22 And you gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner.oSee Num. 21:21-31 So they took possession of the land of Sihon king of HeshbonpSee Num. 21:33-35 and the land of Og king of Bashan. 23 You multiplied their childrenqGen. 15:5; 22:17 as the stars of heaven, and you brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess. 24 rSee Josh. 1–12 So the descendants went in and possessed the land,sPs. 44:2, 3 and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would. 25 And they capturedtDeut. 3:5; 9:1; Josh. 10:20; 14:12 fortified cities anduver. 35; [Num. 13:20, 27; Deut. 8:7, 8; Ezek. 20:6] a rich land, and took possession ofvDeut. 6:11 houses full of all good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filledwDeut. 32:15 and became fat and delighted themselves inxver. 35; Hos. 3:5 your great goodness.
26 yJudg. 2:11, 12; Ezek. 20:21 Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against youzPs. 50:17; [1 Kgs. 14:9] and cast your law behind their backa1 Kgs. 18:4; 19:10; 2 Chr. 24:20, 21; Matt. 23:37; Acts 7:52 and killed your prophets, whobSee ver. 30 had warned them in order to turn them back to you,cSee ver. 18 and they committed great blasphemies. 27 dJudg. 2:14; Ps. 106:41, 42 Therefore you gave them into the hand of their enemies, who made them suffer.ePs. 106:44, 45 And in the time of their suffering they cried out to you and you heard them from heaven, and according to your great mercies you gave themfJudg. 2:16; 3:9 saviors who saved them from the hand of their enemies. 28 gJudg. 3:11, 12, 30; 4:1; 5:31; 6:1 But after they had rest they did evil again before you, and you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they turned and cried to you, you heard from heaven,hPs. 106:43 and many times you delivered them according to your mercies. 29 b[See ver. 26 above] And you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yetiver. 10, 16 they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules,jSee Lev. 18:5 which if a person does them, he shall live by them,kZech. 7:11 and turned a stubborn shoulderlSee ver. 16 and stiffened their neck and would not obey. 30 Many yearsm[Acts 13:18] you bore with themnver. 26, 29, 34; 2 Kgs. 17:13 and warned themo1 Pet. 1:10, 11; 2 Pet. 1:21 by your Spirit through your prophets.pActs 7:51 Yet they would not give ear.qEzra 9:7; [Isa. 42:24] Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. 31 Nevertheless,rver. 19, 27 in your great merciessJer. 4:27; 5:10, 18 you did not make an end of them or forsake them,tver. 17 for you are a gracious and merciful God.
32 Now, therefore, our God,uch. 1:5; Deut. 7:21 the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people,v2 Kgs. 17:3 since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day. 33 wSee Ezra 9:15 Yet you have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfullyxPs. 106:6; Dan. 9:5 and we have acted wickedly. 34 Our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law or paid attention to your commandments and your warnings that you gave them. 35 Even in their own kingdom,yver. 25 enjoying your great goodness that you gave them, and in the large andyver. 25 rich land that you set before them,zDeut. 28:47 they did not serve you or turn from their wicked works. 36 Behold,aEzra 9:9 we are slaves this day; in the land that you gave to our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts, behold, we are slaves. 37 bDeut. 28:33, 51 And its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins. They rule over our bodies and over our livestock as they please, and we are in great distress.
38 Because of all thisc2 Kgs. 23:3; 2 Chr. 29:10; 34:31; Ezra 10:3; [ch. 10:29]; ch. 10:1 we make a firm covenant in writing; ond[ch. 10:1] the sealed document are the names of our princes, our Levites, and our priests. ”