The People of Israel Confess Their Sin

1 Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads. 2 And the Israelites^{1 i}separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and ^jconfessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. 3 And they stood up in their place and ^kread from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God. 4 On the stairs of the Levites stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani; and they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God. 5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. ^lBlessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.

6 “You are the Lord, ^myou alone. ⁿYou have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, ^owith all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you. 7 You are the Lord, the God who chose Abram and ^pbrought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and ^qgave him the name Abraham. 8 You found his heart ^rfaithful before you, and ^smade with him the covenant to give to his offspring the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite. And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous.

9 “And ^tyou saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and ^uheard their cry at the Red Sea, 10 and performed ^vsigns and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for you knew that they acted arrogantly against our fathers. And ^wyou made a name for yourself, as it is to this day. 11 And ^xyou divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land, and you cast their pursuers ^yinto the depths, as a stone into mighty waters. 12 ^zBy a pillar of cloud you led them in the day, and by a pillar of fire in the night to light for them the way in which they should go. 13 ^aYou came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them ^bfrom heaven and gave them right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments, 14 and ^cyou made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them commandments and statutes and a law by Moses your servant. 15 ^dYou gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and ^ebrought water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and ^fyou told them to go in to possess the land that you had sworn to give them.

16 “But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and ^gstiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. 17 They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and ^happointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.³ But you are a God ready to forgive, ⁱgracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. 18 Even ^jwhen they had made for themselves a golden⁴ calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed great blasphemies, 19 you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The ^kpillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. 20 ^lYou gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them ^mwater for their thirst. 21 ⁿForty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

22 “And you gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner. ^oSo they took possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon ^pand the land of Og king of Bashan. 23 You ^qmultiplied their children as the stars of heaven, and you brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess. 24 So the descendants went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them ^rinto their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would. 25 And they captured fortified cities and a ^srich land, and took possession of ^thouses full of all good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness.

26 “Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and ^ucast your law behind their back and ^vkilled your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies. 27 Therefore ^wyou gave them into the hand of their enemies, who made them suffer. And in the time of their suffering they cried out to you and you heard them from heaven, and according to your great mercies ^xyou gave them saviors who saved them from the hand of their enemies. 28 But after they had ^yrest ^zthey did evil again before you, and you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they turned and cried to you, you heard from heaven, and many times you delivered them according to your mercies. 29 And you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules, ^awhich if a person does them, he shall live by them, and they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey. 30 Many years you bore with them and ^bwarned them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet they would not give ear. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. 31 Nevertheless, in your great mercies you ^cdid not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.

32 “Now, therefore, our God, ^dthe great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who ^ekeeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day. 33 Yet ^fyou have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully and ^gwe have acted wickedly. 34 Our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law or paid attention to your commandments and your warnings that you gave them. 35 Even in their own kingdom, and amid your great goodness that you gave them, and in the large and rich land that you set before them, they did not serve you or turn from their wicked works. 36 Behold, ^hwe are slaves this day; in the land that you gave to our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts, behold, we are slaves. 37 ⁱAnd its rich yield goes to 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.

38 “Because of all this we make a firm covenant in writing; on the sealed document are the names of⁶ our princes, our Levites, and our priests.

The People Who Sealed the Covenant

1 “On the seals are the names of⁸ Nehemiah the ^jgovernor, the son of Hacaliah, Zedekiah, 2 Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah, 3 Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah, 4 Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch, 5 Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah, 6 Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch, 7 Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin, 8 Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah; these are the priests. 9 And the Levites: Jeshua the son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel; 10 and their brothers, Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan, 11 Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah, 12 Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah, 13 Hodiah, Bani, Beninu. 14 The chiefs of the people: Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani, 15 Bunni, Azgad, Bebai, 16 Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin, 17 Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur, 18 Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai, 19 Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai, 20 Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir, 21 Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua, 22 Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah, 23 Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub, 24 Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek, 25 Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah, 26 Ahiah, Hanan, Anan, 27 Malluch, Harim, Baanah.

The Obligations of the Covenant

28 “The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all who have ^kseparated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who have knowledge and understanding, 29 join with their brothers, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God’s Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and his rules and his statutes. 30 ^lWe will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons. 31 And if the peoples of the land bring in goods or any grain on the ^mSabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day. And we will forgo the crops of the ⁿseventh year and the exaction of every debt.

32 “We also take on ourselves the obligation to give yearly a third part of a shekel⁹ for the service of the house of our God: 33 for the ^oshowbread, the ^pregular grain offering, the regular burnt offering, the ^qSabbaths, the ^rnew moons, the ^sappointed feasts, the holy things, and the ^tsin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God. 34 We, the priests, the Levites, and the people, have likewise ^ucast lots for the ^vwood offering, to bring it into the house of our God, according to our fathers’ houses, at times appointed, year by year, to burn on the altar of the Lord our God, ^was it is written in the Law. 35 We obligate ourselves to bring the ^xfirstfruits of our ground and the firstfruits of all fruit of every tree, year by year, to the house of the Lord; 36 also to bring to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God, the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle, ^yas it is written in the Law, and the firstborn of our herds and of our flocks; 37 and to bring the first of our ^zdough, and our ^acontributions, the fruit of every tree, the wine and the oil, to the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and to bring to the Levites the ^btithes from our ground, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all our towns where we labor. 38 And the priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive the tithes. And the Levites shall bring up the ^ctithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers of the ^dstorehouse. 39 For the people of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the contribution of grain, wine, and oil to the chambers, where the vessels of the sanctuary are, as well as the priests who minister, and the gatekeepers and the singers. We will not neglect the house of our God.”

Your Name, O Lord, Endures Forever