Nehemiah 9

1 In the twentie and fourth day of this moneth, came the children of Israel together againe, with fasting, and sackeclothes, and earth vpon them,

2 And they that were of the seede of Israel, were separated from all the straunge children, and stoode & knowledged their sinnes, & the wickednes of their fathers:

3 And stoode vp in their place, & read in the booke of the law of the Lorde their God foure times on the day, and they knowledged and worshipped the Lord their God foure times on the day.

4 Then stoode vpon the stayres of the Leuites, Iesua, Bani, Cadmiel, Sabaniah, Bunni, Serebiah, Bani, and Chanani, and cryed loude vnto the Lorde their God:

5 And the Leuites, Iesua, and Cadmiel, Bani, and Hasabnia, Serebiah, and Hodia, Sebania, and Phathahia, sayde: Stand vp, and prayse the Lorde your God for euer, and let thankes be geue vnto the name of thy glory, which excelleth all thankes geuing and prayse.

6 Thou art Lorde alone, thou hast made heauen and the heauen of all heauens with all their hoast, the earth and all thinges that are therein, the sea & all that is therin, & thou preseruest them al, & the hoast of heauen worshippeth thee.

7 Thou art, O Lorde, the God that hast chosen Abraham, and broughtest him out of Ur in Chaldea, and calledst him Abraham:

8 And foundest his heart faithfull before thee, & madest a couenaunt with him, to geue vnto his seede the lande of the Chanaanites, Hethites, Amorites, Pherezites, Iebusites, and Gergesites, and hast made good thy wordes: for thou art righteous,

9 And hast considered the miserie of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their complaynt by the red sea:

10 And shewed tokens and wonders vpon Pharao and all his seruauntes, and on all the people of his lande: For thou knowest that they were presumptuous and cruell against them: and so madest thou thee a name as it is this day.

11 And the [red] sea diddest thou deuide in sunder before them, so that they went through the middest of the sea drye shod: and their persecuters threwest thou into the deepe, as a stone in the mightie waters:

12 And leddest them on the day time in a cloudie piller, and on the night season in a piller of fyre, to shewe them light in the way that they went.

13 Thou camest downe also vpon mount Sinai, and speakest vnto them from heauen, and gauest them right iudgementes, true lawes, good commaundementes and statutes:

14 And declaredst vnto them thy holy Sabbath, and commaundedst them preceptes, ordinaunces, and lawes, by the hande of Moyses thy seruaunt:

15 And gauest them bread from heauen when they were hungry, and broughtest foorth water for them out of the rocke when they were thirstye, and promysedst them that they should go in and take possession of the lande ouer which thou haddest lyft vp thyne hand for to geue them.

16 But they and our fathers were proud and hardnecked, so that they folowed not thy commaundementes:

17 And woulde not obey, neither were mindeful of the wonders that thou diddest for the: but hardened their neckes, and had in their heades to returne to their bondage by their rebellion: But thou O God of mercies, gracious, and full of compassion, of long suffering, and of great mercie, yet forsookest them not.

18 Moreouer, when they had made them a moulten calfe, and saide. This is thy God that brought thee out of the lande of Egypt, and did blasphemies:

19 Yet forsookest thou them not in the wildernesse, according to thy great mercies: And the cloudy piller departed not from them on the day time to leade the the way, neither the piller of fire in the night season, to shewe them light in the way by which they should go.

20 And thou gauest them thy good spirite to enfourme them, and withheldest not thy Manna from their mouth, and gauest them water when they were thirstie.

21 Fourtie yeres long didst thou feede them in the wildernesse, so that they lacked nothing: their clothes waxed not olde, and their feete swelled not.

22 And thou gauest them kingdomes and nations, and scatteredst them into corners: so they possessed the lande of Sehon and the lande of the king of Hesebon, and the lande of Og king of Basan.

23 And their children multipliedst thou as the starres of heauen, and broughtest them into the lande whereof thou haddest spoken to their fathers, that they should go into it, and haue it in possession.

24 And the children went in, and possessed the lande, and thou subduedst before them the inhabiters of the lande, euen the Chanaanites, and gauest them into their handes, with their kinges and the people of the lande, that they might do with them what they would.

25 And they wanne their strong cities, and a fat lande, and toke possession of houses that were full of all maner of goodes, welles digged out, vineyards, oliue gardens , & many fruiteful trees: and they did eate, and were filled, and became fat, and liued in pleasure through thy great goodnesse.

26 Neuerthelesse, they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behinde their backes, & slue their prophetes, which exhorted them earnestly that they might bring them againe vnto thee, and did great blasphemies.

27 Therefore thou gauest them ouer into the hand of their enemies that vexed them: And in the time of their trouble whe they cryed vnto thee thou heardest them from heauen, and through thy great mercie thou gauest them sauiours which helped them out of the hande of their enemies.

28 But when they came to rest, they turned backe againe to do euill before thee: therefore leftest thou them in the hande of their enemies, so that they had the dominion ouer them: And when they conuerted, & cryed vnto thee, thou heardest them from heauen, and many times hast thou deliuered them according to thy great mercie,

29 And testifiedst vnto them, that thou mightest bring them againe vnto thy lawe: Notwithstanding, they were proude, and hearkened not vnto thy commaundementes, but sinned in thy lawes, which if a man do, he shall lyue in them: and turned the shoulder away, and were stiffenecked, and would not heare.

30 Yet many yeres diddest thou forbeare them, and testifiedst vnto them through thy spirite, euen by the hand of thy prophetes, and yet would they not heare: therefore gauest thou them into the hand of the nations of the landes.

31 And for thy great mercies sake, thou hast not vtterly consumed them, neither forsaken them: for thou art a gratious and mercifull God.

32 Now therfore our God, thou great God mightie and terrible, thou that kepest couenaunt and mercie, regarde not a litle al the trauaile that hath come vnto vs, and our kinges, our princes, our priestes, our prophetes, and our fathers, and all the people since the time of the kinges of Assur, vnto this day.

33 And truely thou art iust in al that thou hast brought vpon vs, for thou hast done right: As for vs, we haue ben vngodly,

34 And our kinges, and our princes, our priestes, and our fathers, haue not done thy lawe, nor regarded thy commaundementes, and thy earnest exhortations, wherewith thou hast exhorted them,

35 And they haue not serued thee in their kingdome, and in thy great goodnesse that thou gauest them, and in the large and plenteous lande which thou gauest before them, and haue not conuerted from their wicked workes.

36 Beholde, we are in bondage this day, and so is the lande that thou gauest vnto our fathers to eate the fruites and goodnesse thereof, beholde there are we bondmen.

37 And great is the increase of it vnto the kinges whom thou hast set ouer vs because of our sinnes, and they haue dominion ouer our bodies and cattaile, euen as they wyll them selues: and we are in great trouble.

38 Now because of all this make we a sure couenaunt and write it, & our princes, leuites, and priestes, seale vnto it.