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The Book of Nehemiah, Chapter 9
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1 |
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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3 |
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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4 |
Then stood up upon the stairs, of the Levites, Jeshua, and Bani,
Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani, and cried
with a loud voice unto the LORD their God.
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5 |
Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah,
Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, 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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6 |
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, and gavest him the name of
Abraham;
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8 |
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 Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the
Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his seed, and hast performed thy
words; for thou art righteous:
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9 |
And didst see the affliction of our
fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry by the Red sea;
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And
shewedst signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and
on all the people of his land: 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; and their persecutors
thou threwest into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters.
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12 |
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.
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13 |
Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, 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:
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And gavest them bread from heaven for
their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for
their thirst, and promisedst them that they should go in to possess
the land which thou hadst sworn to give them.
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16 |
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: but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious
and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, 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, 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 shew 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.
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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.
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Their children also multipliedst thou as the stars of heaven, and
broughtest them into the land, concerning which thou hadst promised to
their fathers, that they should go in to possess it.
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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.
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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.
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26 |
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 land 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;
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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;) and
withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.
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30 |
Yet many years didst thou forbear them, and testifiedst against
them by thy spirit in thy prophets: yet would they not give ear:
therefore gavest thou them into the hand 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 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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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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