Book of Nehemiah, Chapter 9
Chapter 9 of Nehemiah
¶ O may Your glorious name be blessed
And exalted above all blessing and praise!
9You have made the heavens,
The heaven of heavens with all their host,
The earth and all that is on it,
The seas and all that is in them.
10You give life to all of them
And the heavenly host bows down before You.
11Who chose Abram
And brought him out from 12Ur of the Chaldees,
And 13gave him the name Abraham.
And made a covenant with him
To give him the land of the Canaanite,
Of the Hittite and the Amorite,
Of the Perizzite, the Jebusite and the Girgashite—
To give it to his [b]descendants.
And You 15have fulfilled Your promise,
For You are righteous.
And 17heard their cry by the [c]Red Sea.
Against all his servants and all the people of his land;
For You knew that 19they acted arrogantly toward them,
And 20made a name for Yourself as it is this day.
So they passed through the midst of the sea on dry ground;
And 22their pursuers You hurled into the depths,
Like a stone into [d]raging waters.
And with a pillar of fire by night
To light for them the way
In which they were to go.
And 25spoke with them from heaven;
You gave them 26just ordinances and true laws,
Good statutes and commandments.
And laid down for them commandments, statutes and law,
Through Your servant Moses.
You 29brought forth water from a rock for them for their thirst,
And You 30told them to enter in order to possess
The land which You [e]swore to give them.
They [f]32became stubborn and would not listen to Your commandments.
And 33did not remember Your wondrous deeds which You had performed among them;
So they became stubborn and 34appointed a leader to return to their slavery [g]in Egypt.
But You are a God 35of forgiveness,
Gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness;
And You did not forsake them.
A calf of molten metal
And said, ‘This is your God
Who brought you up from Egypt,’
And committed great [h]blasphemies,
Did not forsake them in the wilderness;
38The pillar of cloud did not leave them by day,
To guide them on their way,
Nor the pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way in which they were to go.
Your manna You did not withhold from their mouth,
And You gave them water for their thirst.
Their clothes did not wear out, nor did their feet swell.
And allotted them to them as a [i]boundary.
41They took possession of the land of Sihon [j]the king of Heshbon
And the land of Og the king of Bashan.
And You brought them into the land
Which You had told their fathers to enter and possess.
And 44You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites,
And You gave them into their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land,
To do with them [k]as they desired.
They took possession of 47houses full of every good thing,
Hewn cisterns, vineyards, olive groves,
Fruit trees in abundance.
So they ate, were filled and 48grew fat,
And 49reveled in Your great goodness.
And 51cast Your law behind their backs
And 52killed Your prophets who had 53admonished them
So that they might return to You,
And 54they committed great [m]blasphemies.
But when they cried to You 56in the time of their distress,
You heard from heaven, and according to Your great compassion
You 57gave them deliverers who delivered them from the hand of their oppressors.
Therefore You abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so that they ruled over them.
When they cried again to You, You heard from heaven,
And 59many times You rescued them according to Your compassion,
Yet 61they acted arrogantly and did not listen to Your commandments but sinned against Your ordinances,
By 62which if a man observes them he shall live.
And they [n]63turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck, and would not listen.
And 65admonished them by 66Your Spirit through Your prophets,
Yet they would not give ear.
Therefore You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.
For You are 68a gracious and compassionate God.
Do not let all the hardship seem insignificant before You,
Which has come upon us, our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers and on all Your people,
70From the days of the kings of Assyria to this day.
For You have dealt faithfully, but we have acted wickedly.
Or paid attention to Your commandments and Your [o]admonitions with which You have [p]admonished them.
73With Your great goodness which You gave them,
With the broad and rich land which You set before them,
Did not serve You or turn from their evil deeds.
And as to the land which You gave to our fathers to eat of its fruit and its bounty,
Behold, we are slaves in it.
Whom You have set over us because of our sins;
They also rule over our bodies
And over our cattle as they please,
So we are in great distress.
76We are making an agreement in writing;
And on the 77sealed document are the names of our leaders, our Levites and our priests.”FOOTNOTES
REFERENCES
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