1On the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel came together. They fasted, wore sackcloth, and put earth on their heads.
2Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood and confessed their sins, and the sins of their fathers.
3They stood up in their places, and for a quarter of the day they read from the book of the law of the LORD their God. For another quarter of the day they confessed and worshipped the LORD their God.
4Then some of the Levites stood up on the stairs: Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani. They cried out with a loud voice to the LORD their God.
5Then the Levites Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah said, "Stand up and bless the LORD your God for ever and ever. Blessed be your glorious name, which is lifted high above all blessing and praise."
6"You, you alone, are the LORD. You made heaven, the highest heavens, and all their host, the earth and everything on it, the seas and everything in them. You keep them all alive, and the host of heaven worships you."
7"You are the LORD the God who chose Abram. You brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees, and you gave him the name Abraham."
8"You found his heart faithful before you, and you made a covenant with him to give him the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, and the Girgashites. You promised to give it to his descendants. And you have kept your words, for you are righteous."
10"You showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his servants, and against all the people of his land, for you knew how proudly they treated them. So you made a name for yourself, as it is to this day."
11"You divided the sea in front of them, so that they walked through the middle of the sea on dry ground. But those who chased them you threw into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters."
12"By day you led them with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire, to give them light on the way they should go."
13"You also came down on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven. You gave them right judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments."
14"You made your holy sabbath known to them, and you commanded them precepts, statutes, and laws, through your servant Moses."
15"You gave them bread from heaven when they were hungry, and brought water out of the rock for them when they were thirsty. You told them to go in and take the land you had sworn to give them."
16"But they and our fathers acted proudly. They stiffened their necks, and would not listen to your commandments."
17"They refused to obey, and did not remember the wonders you did among them. They stiffened their necks, and in their rebellion they chose a captain to take them back to their slavery. But you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and full of great kindness. You did not leave them."
18"Even when they made themselves a calf of melted metal and said, 'This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,' and made you very angry,"
19"still, in your many mercies, you did not leave them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud did not leave 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."
20"You gave your good spirit to teach them. You did not hold back your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst."
21"For forty years you kept them alive in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell."
22"You gave them kingdoms and nations, and divided the land between them corner by corner. So they took the land of Sihon, the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan."
23"You made their children as many as the stars of heaven, and brought them into the land that you had promised their fathers they would go in and possess."
24"So the children went in and took the land. You brought down before them the Canaanites who lived in the land, and gave them into their hands, with their kings and the people of the land, so that they could do with them whatever they wished."
25"They captured strong cities and a rich land. They took houses full of every good thing, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in great numbers. So they ate and were filled and grew fat, and enjoyed your great goodness."
26"But they disobeyed and rebelled against you. They threw your law behind their backs, and killed your prophets who warned them to turn back to you, and they made you very angry."
27"So you handed them over to their enemies, who troubled them. In the time of their trouble they cried to you, and you heard them from heaven. In your many mercies you gave them saviours, who saved them from the hand of their enemies."
28"But when they had rest, they did evil again before you. So you left them in the hand of their enemies, who ruled over them. Yet when they turned back and cried to you, you heard them from heaven, and many times you rescued them, because of your mercies."
29"You warned them, to bring them back to your law. Yet they acted proudly, and would not listen to your commandments. They sinned against your judgments, which a person shall live by if he keeps them. They turned a stubborn shoulder away, stiffened their necks, and would not listen."
30"For many years you were patient with them. You warned them by your spirit in your prophets, yet they would not listen. So you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands."
31"But because of your great mercies you did not destroy them completely, and you did not leave 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 mercy, do not let all this trouble seem small to you. It has come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, on our priests, on our prophets, on our fathers, and on all your people, from the time of the kings of Assyria until today."
33"Yet you are just in everything that has come upon us, for you have done right, but we have done wickedly."
34"Our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law. They did not listen to your commandments and your warnings, with which you warned them."
35"For even in their own kingdom, and in the great goodness you gave them, and in the large and rich land you set before them, they did not serve you, and they did not turn from their wicked deeds."
36"Look, we are servants today. In the land you gave our fathers, so that they could eat its fruit and its good things, look, we are servants."
37"It gives a rich harvest to the kings you have set over us because of our sins. They rule over our bodies and over our cattle as they please, and we are in great distress."
38"Because of all this we make a firm covenant, and write it down. Our princes, Levites, and priests put their seal on it."