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Chapter 9
1 And in the four and twentieth day of the month the children of Israel came together with fasting and with sackcloth, and earth upon them.
2 And the seed of the children of Israel separated themselves from every stranger: and they stood, and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.
3 And they rose up to stand: and they read in the book of the law of the Lord their God, four times in the day, and four times they confessed, and adored the Lord their God.
4 And there stood up upon the seep of the Levites, Josue, and Bani, and Cedmihel, Sabania, Bonni, Sarebias, Bani, and Chanani: and they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God.
5 And the Levites Josue and Cedmihel, Bonni, Hasebnia, Serebia, Oduia, Sebnia, and Phathahia, said: Arise, bless the Lord your God from eternity to eternity: and blessed be the high name of your glory with all blessing and praise.
6 You yourself, O Lord alone, you have made heaven, and the heaven of heavens, and all the host thereof: the earth and all things that are in it: the seas and all that are therein: and you give life to all these things, and the host of heaven adores you.
7 You, O Lord God, are he who chose Abram, and brought him forth out of the fire of the Chaldeans, and gave him the name of Abraham.
8 And you did find his heart faithful before you: and you made a covenant with him, to give him the land of the Chanaanite, of the Hethite, and of the Amorrhite, and of the Pherezite, and of the Jebusite, and of the Gergezite, to give it to his seed: and you have fulfilled your words, because you are just.
9 And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt: and you did hear their cry by the Red Sea.
10 And you shewed signs and wonders upon Pharao, and upon all his servants, and upon the people of his land: for you knew that they dealt proudly against them: and you made yourself a name, as it is at this day.
11 And you did divide the sea before them, and they passed through the midst of the sea on dry land: but their persecutors you threw into the depth, as a stone into mighty waters.
12 And in a pillar of a cloud you were their leader by day, and in a pillar of Are by night, that they might see the way by which they went.
13 You came down also to mount Sinai, and did speak with them from heaven, and you gave them right judgments, and the law of truth, ceremonies, and good precepts.
14 You made known to them your holy sabbath, and did prescribe to them commandments, and ceremonies, and the law by the hand of Moses your servant.
15 And you gave them bread from heaven in their hunger, and brought forth water for them out of the rock in their thirst, and you said to them that they should go in, and possess the land, upon which you had lifted up your hand to give it them.
16 But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks and hearkened not to your commandments.
17 And they would not hear, and they remembered not your wonders which you had done for them. And they hardened their necks, and gave the head to return to their bondage, as it were by contention. But you, a forgiving God, gracious, and merciful, longsuffering, and full of compassion, did not forsake them.
18 Yea when they had made also to themselves a molten calf, and had said: This is your God, that brought you out of Egypt: and hail committed great blasphemies:
19 Yet you, in your many mercies, did not leave them in the desert: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day to lead them in the way, and the pillar of fire by night to shew them the way by which they should go.
20 And you gave them your good Spirit to teach them, and your manna you did not withhold from their mouth, and you gave them water for their thirst.
21 Forty years did you feed them in the desert, and nothing was wanting to them: their garments did not grow old, and their feet were not worn.
22 And you gave them kingdoms, and nations, and did divide lots for them: and they possessed the land of Sehon, and the land of the king of Hesebon, and the land of Og king of Basan.
23 And you did multiply their children as the stars of heaven, and brought them to the land concerning which you had said to their fathers, that they should go in and possess it.
24 And the children came and possessed the land, and you did humble before them the inhabitants of the land, the Chanaanites, and gave them into their hands, with their kings, and the people of the land, that they might do with them as it pleased them.
25 And they took strong cities and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all goods: cisterns made by others, vine- yards, and oliveyards, and fruit trees in abundance: and they ate, and were filled, and became fat, and abounded with de- light in your great goodness.
26 But they provoked you to wrath, and departed from you, and threw your law behind their backs: and they killed your prophets, who admonished them earnestly to return to you: and they were guilty of great blasphemies.
27 And you gave them into the hands of their enemies, and they afflicted them. And in the time of their tribulation they cried to you, and you heard from heaven, and according to the multitude of your tender mercies you gave them saviours, to save them from the hands of their enemies.
28 But after they had rest, they returned to do evil in your sight: and you left them in the hand of their enemies, and they had dominion over them. Then they returned, and cried to you: and you heard from heaven, and delivered them many times in your mercies.
29 And you did admonish them to re turn to your law. But they dealt proudly, and hearkened not to your commandments, but sinned against your judgments, which if a man do, he shall live in them: and they withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.
30 And you did forbear with them for many years, and did testify against them by your spirit by the hand of your prophets: and they heard not, and you did deliver them into the hand of the people of the lands.
31 Yet in your very many mercies you did not utterly consume them, nor forsake them: because you are a merciful and gracious God.
32 Now therefore our God, great, strong and terrible, who keep covenant and mercy, turn not away from your face all the labour which has come upon us, upon our kings, and our princes, and our priests, and our prophets, and our fathers, and all the people from the days of the king of Assur, until this day.
33 And you are just in all things that have come upon us: because you have done truth, but we have done wickedly.
34 Our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law, and have not minded your commandments, and your testimonies which you have testified among them.
35 And they have not served you in their kingdoms, and in your manifold goodness, which you gave them, and in the large and fat land, which you delivered before them, nor did they return from their most wicked devices.
36 Behold we ourselves this day are bondmen: and the land, which you gave our fathers, to eat the bread thereof, and the good things thereof, and we ourselves are servants in it.
37 And the fruits thereof grow up for the kings, whom you have set over us for our sins, and they have dominion over our bodies, and over our beasts, according to their will, and we are in great tribulation.
38 and because of all this we ourselves make a covenant, and write it, and our princes, our Levites, and our priests sign it.