1ON THE TWENTY-FOURTH DAY of this month the Israelites assembled for a fast, clothed in sackcloth and with earth on their heads. 2Those who were of Israelite descent separated themselves from all the foreigners; they took their places and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their forefathers. 3Then they stood up in their places, and the book of the law of the LORD their God was read for one fourth of the day, and for another fourth they confessed and did obeisance to the LORD their God. 4Upon the steps assigned to the Levites stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Kenani, and they cried aloud to the LORD their God. 5Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, 'Stand up and bless the LORD your God, saying: From everlasting to everlasting thy glorious name is blessed and exalted above all blessing and praise.
6Thou alone art the LORD; thou hast made heaven, the highest heaven with all its host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. Thou preservest all of them, and the host of heaven worships thee. 7Thou art the LORD, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees and named him Abraham. 8Thou didst find him faithful to thee and didst make a covenant with him to give to him and to his descendants the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, and the Girgashites; and thou didst fulfil thy promise, for thou art just.
9'And thou didst see the misery of our forefathers in Egypt and didst hear their cry for help at the Red Sea , 10and didst work signs and portents against Pharaoh, all his courtiers and all the people of his land, knowing how arrogantly they treated our forefathers, and thou didst win for thyself a name that lives on to this day. 11Thou didst tear the sea apart before them so that they went through the middle of it on dry ground; but thou didst cast their pursuers into the depths, like a stone cast into turbulent waters. 12Thou didst guide them by a pillar of cloud in the day-time and by a pillar of fire at night to give them light on the road by which they travelled. 13Thou didst descend upon Mount Sinai and speak with them from heaven, and give them right judgements and true laws, and statutes and commandments which were good, 14and thou didst make known to them thy holy sabbath and give them commandments, statutes, and laws through thy servant Moses. 15Thou gavest them bread from heaven to stay their hunger and thou broughtest water out from a rock for them to quench their thirst, and thou didst bid them enter and take possession of the land which thou hadst solemnly sworn to give them. 16But they, our forefathers, were arrogant and stubborn, and disobeyed thy commandments. 17They refused to obey and did not remember the miracles which thou didst accomplish among them; they remained stubborn, and they appointed a man to lead them back to slavery in Egypt. But thou art a forgiving god, gracious and compassionate, long-suffering and ever constant, and thou didst not forsake them. 18Even when they made the image of a bull-calf in metal and said, "This is your god who brought you up from Egypt", and were guilty of great blasphemies, 19thou in thy great compassion didst not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud did not fail to guide them on their journey by day nor the pillar of fire by night to give them light on the road by which they travelled. 20Thou gavest thy good spirit to instruct them; thy manna thou didst not withhold from them, and thou gavest them water to quench their thirst. 21Forty years long thou didst sustain them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing; their clothes did not wear out and their feet were not swollen.
22'Thou gavest them kingdoms and peoples, allotting these to them as spoils of war. Thus they took possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan. 23Thou didst multiply their descendants so that they became countless as the stars in the sky, bringing them into the land which thou didst promise to give to their forefathers as their possession. 24When their descendants entered the land and took possession of it, thou didst subdue before them the Canaanites who inhabited it and gavest these, kings and peoples alike, into their hands to do with them whatever they wished. 25They captured fortified cities and a fertile land and took possession of houses full of all good things, rock-hewn cisterns, vineyards, olive-trees, and fruit-trees in abundance; so they ate and were satisfied and grew fat and found delight in thy great goodness. 26But they were defiant and rebelled against thee; they turned their backs on thy law and killed thy prophets, who solemnly warned them to return to thee, and they were guilty of great blasphemies. 27Because of this thou didst hand them over to their enemies who oppressed them. But when, in the time of their oppression, they cried to thee for help, thou heardest them from heaven and in thy great compassion didst send them saviours to save them from their enemies. 28But when they had had a respite, they once more did what was wrong in thine eyes; and thou didst abandon them to their enemies who held them in subjection. But again they cried to thee for help, and many times over thou heardest them from heaven and in thy compassion didst save them. 29Thou didst solemnly warn them to return to thy law, but they grew arrogant and did not heed thy commandments; they sinned against thy ordinances, which bring life to him who keeps them. Stubbornly they turned away in mulish obstinacy and would not obey. 30Many years thou wast patient with them and didst warn them by thy spirit through thy prophets; but they would not listen. Therefore thou didst hand them over to foreign peoples. 31Yet in thy great compassion thou didst not make an end of them nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and compassionate god.
32'Now therefore, our God, thou great and mighty and terrible God, who faithfully keepest covenant, do not make light of the hardships that have befallen us—our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our forefathers, and all thy people—from the days of the kings of Assyria to this day. 33In all that has befallen us thou hast been just, thou hast kept faith, but we have done wrong. 34Our kings, our princes, our priests, and our forefathers did not keep thy law nor heed thy commandments and the warnings which thou gavest them. 35Even under their own kings, while they were enjoying the great prosperity which thou gavest them and the broad and fertile land which thou didst bestow upon them, they did not serve thee; they did not abandon their evil ways. 36Today we are slaves, slaves here in the land which thou gavest to our forefathers so that they might eat its fruits and enjoy its good things. 37All its produce now goes to the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins. They have power over our bodies, and they do as they please with our beasts, while we are in dire distress.
38'Because of all this we make a binding declaration in writing, and our princes, our Levites, and our priests witness the sealing.
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