Nehemiah 8–9

8^*And all the people ^agathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the ^bwater gate; and they spake unto Ezra the ^cscribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel. ²And Ezra the priest brought ^dthe law before the congregation both of men and women, and all ^†that could hear with understanding, upon ^ethe first day of the seventh month. ³And ^dhe read therein before the street that was before the ^bwater gate ^†from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law. ⁴And Ezra the scribe stood upon a ^†pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood ^fMattithiah, and Shema, and ^gAnaiah, and ^hUrijah, and Hilkiah, and ⁱMaaseiah, on his right hand; and on his left hand, Pedaiah, and Mishael, and ^kMalchiah, and ^lHashum, and Hashbadana, ^mZechariah, and ^mMeshullam. ⁵And Ezra opened the book in the ^†sight of all the people; (for ⁿhe was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up: ⁶And Ezra ^oblessed the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered, ^pAmen, Amen, with ^qlifting up their hands: and they ^rbowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground. ⁷Also ^sJeshua, and ^tBani, and ^uSherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, ^xShabbethai, ^yHodijah, ⁱMaaseiah, ^zKelita, ^aAzariah, ^bJozabad, ^cHanan, ^cPelaiah, and the Levites, ^dcaused the people to understand the law: and the people ^estood in their place. ⁸So they read in the book in the law of God ^fdistinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.

⁹And Nehemiah, which is ^||the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites ^gthat taught the people, said unto all the people, ^hThis day is holy unto the Lord your God; ⁱmourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law. ¹⁰Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength. ¹¹So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day is holy; neither be ye grieved. ¹²And all the people went their way to eat, and to drink, and to ^jsend portions, and to make great mirth, because they had ^kunderstood the words that were declared unto them. ¹³And on the second day ^lwere gathered together the chief of the fathers of all the people, the priests, and the Levites, unto Ezra the scribe, even ^||to understand the words of the law. ¹⁴And they found written in the law which the Lord had commanded ^†by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in ^mbooths in the feast of the seventh month: ¹⁵And that they should ⁿpublish and proclaim in all their cities, and ^oin Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and ^ppine branches, and myrtle branches, and ^qpalm branches, and branches of ^qthick trees, to make booths, as it is written. ¹⁶So the people went forth, and brought them, and made themselves booths, every one upon ^rthe roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in ^sthe street of the water gate, and in the street of the ^tgate of Ephraim. ¹⁷And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day ^uhad not the children of Israel done so. And there was very ^xgreat gladness. ¹⁸Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, ^yhe read in the book of the law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was ^†a solemn assembly, according unto the manner.

9Now in the twenty and fourth day of ^athis month the children of Israel were assembled with ^bfasting, and with ^csackclothes, and ^dearth upon them. ²And ^ethe seed of Israel separated themselves from all ^†strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers. ³And they ^fstood up in their place, and ^gread 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. ⁴Then stood up upon the ^||stairs, of the Levites, ^hJeshua, and ^hBani, ⁱKadmiel, ^kShebaniah, ^lBunni, ^mSherebiah, ^hBani, and Chenani, and cried with a loud voice unto the Lord their God. ⁵Then the Levites, ^hJeshua, and ⁱKadmiel, ^hBani, ⁿHashabniah, ^mSherebiah, ^oHodijah, ^kShebaniah, and ^pPethahiah, said,

Stand up and bless the Lord your God for ever and ever: and blessed be ^qthy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. ^6rThou, even thou, art Lord alone; ^sthou hast made heaven, ^tthe heaven of heavens, with ^uall their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou ^xpreservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee. ⁷Thou art the Lord the God, who didst choose ^yAbram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of ^zAbraham; ⁸And foundest his heart ^afaithful before thee, and madest a ^bcovenant with him to give the land of ^cthe Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his seed, and ^dhast performed thy words; for thou art righteous: ⁹And ^edidst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest ^ftheir cry by the Red sea; ¹⁰And ^gshewedst signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all the people of his land: for thou knewest that they ^hdealt proudly against them. So didst thou ⁱget thee a name, as it is this day. ¹¹And ^kthou 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 ^lthe deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters. ¹²Moreover thou ^mleddest 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. ¹³ⁿThou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them ^oright judgments, and ^†true laws, good statutes and commandments: ¹⁴And madest known unto them thy ^pholy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant: ¹⁵And ^qgavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and ^rbroughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promisedst them that they should ^sgo in to possess the land ^†which thou hadst sworn to give them. ¹⁶But they and our fathers ^tdealt proudly, and ^uhardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments, ¹⁷And refused to obey, neither ^xwere mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but ^uhardened their necks, and in their rebellion ^yappointed a captain to return to their bondage: but thou art ^†a God ready to pardon, ^zgracious and merciful, ^zaslow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not. ¹⁸Yea, ^bwhen they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had wrought ^cgreat provocations; ¹⁹Yet thou in ^dthy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: ^ethe pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they should go. ²⁰Thou gavest also thy ^fgood spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy ^gmanna from their mouth, and gavest them ^gwater for their thirst. ²¹Yea, ^hforty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; ⁱtheir clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not. ²²Moreover thou gavest them kingdoms and nations, and didst divide them into ^kcorners: so they possessed the land of ^lSihon, and the land of the king of ^mHeshbon, and the land of ⁿOg king of Bashan. ²³Their children also multipliedst thou as ^othe 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. ²⁴So ^pthe children went in and possessed the land, and ^qthou subduedst before them 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. ²⁵And they took strong cities, and a ^rfat land, and possessed ^shouses full of all goods, ^||wells digged, vineyards, and oliveyards, and ^†fruit trees in abundance: so they did eat, and were filled, and ^tbecame fat, and delighted themselves in ^uthy great goodness. ²⁶Nevertheless ^xthey were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and ^ycast thy law behind their backs, and ^zslew thy prophets which testified against them to turn them to thee, and they wrought ^agreat provocations. ^27bTherefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies, who vexed them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and according to ^cthy manifold mercies thou gavest them ^dsaviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies. ²⁸But after they had rest, ^†ethey 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 ^fmany times didst thou deliver them according to thy mercies; ²⁹And testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring them again unto thy law: yet they ^gdealt proudly, and hearkened not unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments, ^h(which if a man do, he shall live in them;) and ^†withdrew the shoulder, and ⁱhardened their neck, and would not hear. ³⁰Yet many years didst thou ^†forbear them, and ^ktestifiedst against them by thy spirit ^†lin thy prophets: yet would they not give ear: ^mtherefore gavest thou them into the hand of the people of the lands. ³¹Nevertheless for ⁿthy great mercies’ sake ^othou…