Chapter 9 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.
And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers,
and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.
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.
Then stood up upon the stairs of the Levites, Jeshua, and Benai, Kadmiel,
Shebaniah, Bunai, Sherebiah, Benai, and Kanani, and cried with a loud voice
unto the Lord their God.
Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Benai, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodeidah,
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.
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 worshipeth thee.
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, 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.
And didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry
by the Red Sea, and showedst 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.
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.
Moreover, thou leadest 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.
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.
And madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath, and commandedst them precepts,
statutes, and laws by the hand of Moses thy servant.
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.
But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened
not to thy commandments, 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.
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, 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 show them light, and the way wherein they
should go.
Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy
manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst.
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.
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.
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.
So the children went in, and possessed the land, and thou subduest them before 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.
Then 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.
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.
Therefore thou deliverest them into the hand of their enemies who vexed them,
and at the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest
them from heaven, and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviors,
who saved them out of the hand of their enemies.
But after they had rest, they did evil again before thee.
Therefore leftest thou them in the hand 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, 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.
Yet many years didst thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them by thy spirit
and thy prophets, yet would they not give ear.
Therefore gavest thou them into the hand of the people of the lands.
Nevertheless for thy great mercy's sake thou didst not utterly consume them,
nor forsake them, for thou art a gracious and merciful God.
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.
How be it thou art just in all that is brought upon us?
For thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly.
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.
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.
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.
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.
And because of all this, we make a sure covenant and write it, and our princes,
Levites, and priests seal unto it.
This concludes Disc Number 27.