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Nehemiah 9:1-38 — The Israelites Confess Their Sins

Neh.9.1-38

¹On the twenty-fourth day of this month , the people of Israel assembled with fasting, in sackcloth, and with dust on themselves. ²The descendants of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. ³They stood in their place and read from the Book of the Law of Yahweh their God for a fourth of the day , and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped Yahweh their God. ⁴Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani stood on the Levites' platform and cried out with a loud voice to Yahweh their God. ⁵Then the Levites—Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah—said, “Stand up; bless Yahweh your God from everlasting to everlasting. May your glorious name be blessed, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise.” ⁶You are Yahweh, you alone. You 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 host of heaven worships you. ⁷You are Yahweh, the God who chose Abram, brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans, and gave him the name Abraham. ⁸You found his heart faithful before you, and you made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite, to give it to his offspring. You have fulfilled your words, for you are righteous. ⁹You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and you heard their cry at the Red Sea. ¹⁰You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his servants, and against all the people of his land, for you knew that they had acted arrogantly against them. And you made a name for yourself as it is to this day. ¹¹You split the sea before them, and they passed through the midst of the sea on dry ground. But you cast their pursuers into the depths like a stone into mighty waters. ¹²With a pillar of cloud you led them by day, and with a pillar of fire by night, to give them light on the way they should go. ¹³You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven. You gave them right judgments, true laws, good statutes, and commandments. ¹⁴You made known to them your holy Sabbath, and you commanded them commandments, statutes, and Law through Moses your servant. ¹⁵You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, and you brought water out of the rock for them for their thirst. You told them to go in and possess the land that you had sworn to give them. ¹⁶But they and our fathers acted arrogantly, stiffened their neck, and did not listen to your commandments. ¹⁷They refused to listen and did not remember your wonders that you performed among them. They stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in their rebellion. But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and you did not forsake them. ¹⁸Even when they made for themselves a cast calf and said, 'This is your god who brought you up out of Egypt,' and committed great blasphemies, ¹⁹you, in your many mercies, did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud did not depart from over them by day, to lead them on the way, nor the pillar of fire by night, to give them light and show them the way they should go. ²⁰You gave your good Spirit to give them understanding. You did not withhold your manna from their mouth, and you gave them water for their thirst. ²¹For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their garments did not wear out, and their feet did not swell. ²²You gave them kingdoms and peoples, and you allotted to them every corner. So they possessed the land of Sihon, that is, the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan. ²³You multiplied their children like the stars of the heavens, and you brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess. ²⁴So their children went in and possessed the land. You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hand, both their kings and the peoples of the land, to do with them as they pleased. ²⁵They captured fortified cities and rich land, and possessed houses full of every good thing, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were satisfied, they grew fat, and they delighted themselves in your great goodness. ²⁶But they were disobedient and rebelled against you. They cast your Law behind their back, killed your prophets who warned them in order to bring them back to you, and committed great blasphemies. ²⁷So you gave them into the hand of their adversaries, who oppressed them. And in the time of their distress they cried out to you, and you heard from heaven. According to your many mercies, you gave them deliverers who saved them from the hand of their adversaries. ²⁸But when they had rest, they turned again to do evil before you. So you left them in the hand of their enemies, and they ruled over them. Yet when they turned back and cried out to you, you heard from heaven and rescued them many times according to your mercies. ²⁹You warned them in order to bring them back to your Law, but they acted arrogantly and did not listen to your commandments. They sinned against your judgments, by which a person shall live if he does them. They turned a stubborn shoulder, stiffened their neck, and would not listen. ³⁰For many years you were patient with them and warned them by your Spirit through your prophets, yet they would not listen. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. ³¹But in your many mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and compassionate God. ³²And now, our God, the great, mighty, and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, do not let all the hardship seem small before you that has come upon us—upon our kings, our officials, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people—from the days of the kings of Assyria until this day. ³³Yet you are righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have acted faithfully, but we have acted wickedly. ³⁴Our kings, our officials, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your Law, and have not paid attention to your commandments and your warnings that you gave them. ³⁵Even in their own kingdom, and amid your great goodness that you gave them, and in the broad and rich land that you set before them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil deeds. ³⁶Behold, we are slaves today; and in the land that you gave to our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good things, behold, we are slaves. ³⁷Its produce is abundant for 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. ³⁸Because of all this, we are making a binding agreement in writing, and on the sealed document are our officials, our Levites, and our priests.

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4/11/2026

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