The People Confess Their Sins
And on the twenty-fourth day of this month the sons of Israel gathered with fasting, and in sackcloth, and with earth on them.
And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all the sons of the foreigner; and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
And they rose up in their place, and read in the book of the instruction of the LORD their God a fourth of the day; and a fourth they were confessing and worshipping the LORD their God.
And there stood up on the stairs of the Levites: Jeshua, and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, Chenani; and they cried with a great voice to the LORD their God.
And the Levites said — Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, Pethahiah: “Rise up, bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting. And let them bless your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.
You are the LORD, you alone. You made the heavens, the heavens of the 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 the heavens worship you.
You are the LORD, the God who chose Abram, and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans, and set his name Abraham.
And you found his heart faithful before you, and cut with him the covenant to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite, and the Girgashite — to give it to his seed. And you raised up your words, for you are righteous.
And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry at the Sea of Reeds.
And you gave signs and wonders against Pharaoh, and against all his servants, and against all the people of his land — for you knew that they had acted presumptuously against them; and you made yourself a name, as it is this day.
And you split the sea before them, and they passed through the middle of the sea on dry ground; and their pursuers you threw into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters.
And by a pillar of cloud you led them by day, and by a pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way they should go in.
And on Mount Sinai you came down, and spoke with them from the heavens; and you gave them upright judgments, and instructions of truth, good statutes and commandments.
And your holy sabbath you made known to them; and commandments and statutes and instruction you commanded them by the hand of Moses your servant.
And bread from the heavens you gave them for their hunger, and water from the rock you brought out for them for their thirst. And you said to them to go in and possess the land that you had lifted your hand to give them.
But they and our fathers acted presumptuously, and stiffened their neck, and did not listen to your commandments.
And they refused to listen, and did not remember your wonders that you had done with them; and they stiffened their neck, and appointed a head to return to their slavery in their rebellion. But you are a God of forgivenesses — gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abundant in loyal love — and you did not abandon them.
Even when they made themselves a molten calf and said, ‘This is your god who brought you up from Egypt,’ and did great blasphemies —
you, in your abundant compassion, did not abandon them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud did not turn from over them by day, to lead them in the way; nor the pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way they should go in.
And your good Spirit you gave to give them insight; and your manna you did not withhold from their mouth, and water you gave them for their thirst.
And forty years you sustained them in the wilderness — they lacked nothing; their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell.
And you gave them kingdoms and peoples, and allotted them out to the corner; and they possessed the land of Sihon, and the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og, king of Bashan.
And their sons you multiplied like the stars of the heavens; and you brought them to the land that you had told their fathers to go in and possess.
And the sons came in and possessed the land, and you humbled 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.
And they captured fortified cities and a fat land, and possessed houses full of every good thing, hewn cisterns, vineyards and olive groves and fruit trees in abundance. And they ate, and were filled, and grew fat, and luxuriated in your great goodness.
But they were defiant and rebelled against you, and threw your instruction behind their back, and killed your prophets who had testified against them to turn them back to you; and they did great blasphemies.
So you gave them into the hand of their adversaries, who distressed them. And in the time of their distress they would cry out to you, and you would hear from the heavens; and in your abundant compassion you would give them saviors, and they would save them from the hand of their adversaries.
But when they had rest, they would return to doing evil before you; and you would leave them in the hand of their enemies, who would rule over them. And they would return and cry out to you, and you would hear from the heavens and deliver them, in your compassion, many times.
And you testified against them to turn them back to your instruction; but they acted presumptuously, and did not listen to your commandments, and sinned against your judgments — which a man shall do and live by them — and gave a stubborn shoulder, and stiffened their neck, and did not listen.
And you drew it out over them many years, and testified against them by your Spirit, by the hand of your prophets; and they did not give ear. So you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.
But in your abundant compassion you did not make an end of them, and did not abandon them — for you are a gracious and compassionate God.
And now, our God — the great, the mighty, and the fearful God, keeping the covenant and the loyal love — let not all the hardship seem small before you that has found us: our kings, our officers, and our priests, and our prophets, and our fathers, and all your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until this day.
And you are righteous in all that has come upon us; for you have acted in truth, and we have acted wickedly.
And our kings, our officers, our priests, and our fathers did not do your instruction, and did not attend to your commandments and to your testimonies that you testified against them.
And they, in their kingdom, and in your abundant goodness that you gave them, and in the wide and fat land that you set before them — they did not serve you, and did not turn from their evil deeds.
Here we are today, slaves. And the land that you gave to our fathers, to eat its fruit and its good — here we are, slaves upon it.
And its produce increases for the kings you have set over us because of our sins; and they rule over our bodies, and over our cattle, as they please. And we are in great distress.”
And in all this we are cutting a firm agreement, and writing it; and on the sealed document are our officers, our Levites, our priests.