1Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the sons of Israel assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, with earth upon them.
2And the offspring of Israel separated themselves from all the foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
3They stood up in their place and read aloud from the scroll of the law of Yahweh their God for a fourth of the day, and for another fourth they were confessing and bowing down to Yahweh their God.
4Then Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani stood upon the platform of the Levites and cried out with a great voice to Yahweh their God.
5And the Levites — Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah — said: “Arise, bless Yahweh your God from everlasting to everlasting! And may they bless your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.
6You alone are Yahweh. You made the heavens, the heaven of heavens and all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you give life to them all, and the host of heaven bows down to you.
7You are Yahweh, the God who chose Abram and brought him out from Ur of the Chaldeans, and you set his name Abraham.
8You found his heart faithful before you, and you cut with him the covenant to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite — to give it to his offspring; and you have fulfilled your words, for you are righteous.
9You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and you heard their outcry at the Sea of Reeds.
10You set signs and wonders against Pharaoh and against all his servants and against all the people of his land, for you knew that they acted arrogantly against them; and you made a name for yourself, as it is this day.
11You split the sea before them, and they passed through the midst of the sea on dry ground; but their pursuers you hurled into the depths like a stone into mighty waters.
12In a pillar of cloud you led them by day, and in a pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way in which they should walk.
13You came down upon Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven, and you gave them just ordinances and laws of truth, good statutes and commandments.
14And your holy sabbath you made known to them, and commandments, statutes, and law you commanded them by the hand of Moses your servant.
15Bread from heaven you gave them for their hunger, and water from the rock you brought out for them for their thirst; and you told them to go in to possess the land that you had sworn to give them.
16But they and our fathers acted arrogantly and stiffened their neck, and they did not listen to your commandments.
17They refused to listen, and they did not remember your wonders that you had done among them; but they stiffened their neck and appointed a head to return to their bondage in their rebellion. Yet you are a God of forgivenesses, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loyal love, and you did not forsake them.
18Even when they made for themselves a cast-metal calf and said, ‘This is your god who brought you up from Egypt,’ and committed great blasphemies,
19you in your abundant compassion did not forsake them in the wilderness; the pillar of cloud did not depart from over them by day, to lead them in the way, nor the pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way in which they should walk.
20Your good Spirit you gave to instruct them, and your manna you did not withhold from their mouth, and water you gave them for their thirst.
21For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing. Their garments did not wear out, and their feet did not swell.
22You gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner; and they took possession of the land of Sihon, the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.
23Their sons you multiplied like the stars of heaven, and you brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess.
24So the sons came in and took possession of the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land, to do with them as they pleased.
25They captured fortified cities and fertile soil, and took possession of houses full of every good thing, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were satisfied and grew fat, and they luxuriated in your great goodness.
26But they were disobedient and rebelled against you, and they cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets who had testified against them to turn them back to you; and they committed great blasphemies.
27So you gave them into the hand of their adversaries, who oppressed them; but in the time of their distress they cried out to you, and you from heaven would hear, and in your abundant compassion you would give them deliverers who saved them from the hand of their adversaries.
28But when they had rest, they would again do evil before you, and you would abandon them into the hand of their enemies, who ruled over them. Then they would turn back and cry out to you, and you from heaven would hear and deliver them in your compassion, many times.
29You warned them, to turn them back to your law, but they acted arrogantly and did not listen to your commandments; against your ordinances they sinned — by which, if a person does them, he shall live — and they turned a stubborn shoulder, stiffened their neck, and would not listen.
30You bore with them for many years and warned them by your Spirit through the hand of your prophets, but they would not give ear; so you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.
31Yet in your great mercies you did not make an end of them, and you did not forsake them, for you are a gracious and compassionate God.
32And now, our God—the great, mighty, and awesome God, who keeps the covenant and loyal love—do not let all the hardship that has found us seem small before you: that which has come upon our kings, our officials, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until this day.
33But you are righteous concerning all that has come upon us, for you have acted faithfully, while we have acted wickedly.
34Our kings, our officials, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law, nor have they heeded your commandments and your testimonies with which you warned them.
35For they, in their kingdom and amid your abundant goodness that you gave them, and in the broad and rich land that you set before them, did not serve you, nor did they turn from their evil deeds.
36Behold, we are slaves today; and the land that you gave to our fathers to eat its fruit and its bounty—behold, we are slaves upon it!
37Its abundant 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.
38Because of all this we are making a firm agreement, and putting it in writing; and on the sealed document are our officials, our Levites, and our priests.
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