Nehemiah 8–9

8All the people of Israel gathered together in the square by the Water Gate. They asked Ezra the teacher to bring out the Book of the Teachings of Moses, which the Lord had given to Israel.

²So on the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the priest brought out the Teachings for the crowd. Men, women, and all who could listen and understand had gathered. ³At the square by the Water Gate Ezra read the Teachings out loud from early morning until noon to the men, women, and everyone who could listen and understand. All the people listened carefully to the Book of the Teachings.

⁴Ezra the teacher stood on a high wooden platform that had been built just for this time. On his right were Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah. And on his left were Pedaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam.

⁵Ezra opened the book in full view of everyone, because he was above them. As he opened it, all the people stood up. ⁶Ezra praised the Lord, the great God, and all the people held up their hands and said, “Amen! Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

⁷These Levites explained the Teachings to the people as they stood there: Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, and Pelaiah. ⁸They read from the Book of the Teachings of God and explained what it meant so the people understood what was being read.

⁹Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher, and the Levites who were teaching said to all the people, “This is a holy day to the Lord your God. Don’t be sad or cry.” All the people had been crying as they listened to the words of the Teachings.

¹⁰Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy good food and sweet drinks. Send some to people who have none, because today is a holy day to the Lord. Don’t be sad, because the joy of the Lord will make you strong.”

¹¹The Levites helped calm the people, saying, “Be quiet, because this is a holy day. Don’t be sad.”

¹²Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send some of their food to others, and to celebrate with great joy. They finally understood what they had been taught.

¹³On the second day of the month, the leaders of all the families, the priests, and the Levites met with Ezra the teacher. They gathered to study the words of the Teachings. ¹⁴This is what they found written in the Teachings: The Lord commanded through Moses that the people of Israel were to live in shelters during the feast of the seventh month. ¹⁵The people were supposed to preach this message and spread it through all their towns and in Jerusalem: “Go out into the mountains, and bring back branches from olive and wild olive trees, myrtle trees, palms, and shade trees. Make shelters with them, as it is written.”

¹⁶So the people went out and got tree branches. They built shelters on their roofs, ⁿ in their courtyards, in the courtyards of the Temple, in the square by the Water Gate, and in the square next to the Gate of Ephraim. ¹⁷The whole group that had come back from captivity built shelters and lived in them. The Israelites had not done this since the time of Joshua son of Nun. And they were very happy.

¹⁸Ezra read to them every day from the Book of the Teachings, from the first day to the last. The people of Israel celebrated the feast for seven days, and then on the eighth day the people gathered as the law said.

Israel Confesses Sins

9On the twenty-fourth day of that same month, the people of Israel gathered. They fasted, and they wore rough cloth and put dust on their heads to show their sadness. ²Those people whose ancestors were from Israel had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood and confessed their sins and their ancestors’ sins. ³For a fourth of the day they stood where they were and read from the Book of the Teachings of the Lord their God. For another fourth of the day they confessed their sins and worshiped the Lord their God. ⁴These Levites were standing on the stairs: Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Kenani. They called out to the Lord their God with loud voices. ⁵Then these Levites spoke: Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah. They said, “Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who lives forever and ever.”

The People’s Prayer

“Blessed be your wonderful name.

It is more wonderful than all blessing and praise.

⁶You are the only Lord.

You made the heavens, even the highest heavens,

with all the stars.

You made the earth and everything on it,

the seas and everything in them;

you give life to everything.

The heavenly army worships you.

⁷“You are the Lord,

the God who chose Abram

and brought him out of Ur in Babylonia

and named him Abraham.

⁸You found him faithful to you,

so you made an agreement with him

to give his descendants the land of the Canaanites,

Hittites, Amorites,

Perizzites, Jebusites, and Girgashites.

You have kept your promise,

because you do what is right.

⁹“You saw our ancestors suffering in Egypt

and heard them cry out at the Red Sea.

¹⁰You did signs and miracles against the king of Egypt,

and against all his officers and all his people,

because you knew how proud they were.

You became as famous as you are today.

¹¹You divided the sea in front of our ancestors;

they walked through on dry ground.

But you threw the people chasing them into the deep water,

like a stone thrown into mighty waters.

¹²You led our ancestors with a pillar of cloud by day

and with a pillar of fire at night.

It lit the way

they were supposed to go.

¹³You came down to Mount Sinai

and spoke from heaven to our ancestors.

You gave them fair rules and true teachings,

good orders and commands.

¹⁴You told them about your holy Sabbath

and gave them commands, orders, and teachings

through your servant Moses.

¹⁵When they were hungry, you gave them bread from heaven.

When they were thirsty, you brought them water from the rock.

You told them to enter and take over

the land you had promised to give them.

¹⁶“But our ancestors were proud and stubborn

and did not obey your commands.

¹⁷They refused to listen;

they forgot the miracles you did for them.

So they became stubborn and turned against you,

choosing a leader to take them back to slavery.

But you are a forgiving God.

You are kind and full of mercy.

You do not become angry quickly, and you have great love.

So you did not leave them.

¹⁸Our ancestors even made an idol of a calf for themselves.

They said, ‘This is your god, Israel,

who brought you up out of Egypt.’

They spoke against you.

¹⁹“You have great mercy,

so you did not leave them in the desert.

The pillar of cloud guided them by day,

and the pillar of fire led them at night,

lighting the way they were to go.

²⁰You gave your good Spirit to teach them.

You gave them manna to eat

and water when they were thirsty.

²¹You took care of them for forty years in the desert;

they needed nothing.

Their clothes did not wear out,

and their feet did not swell.

²²“You gave them kingdoms and nations;

you gave them more land.

They took over the country of Sihon king of Heshbon

and the country of Og king of Bashan.

²³You made their children as many as the stars in the sky,

and you brought them into the land

that you told their ancestors to enter and take over.

²⁴So their children went into the land and took over.

The Canaanites lived there, but you defeated them for our ancestors.

You handed over to them the Canaanites, their kings, and the people of the land.

Our ancestors could do what they wanted with them.

²⁵They captured strong, walled cities and fertile land.

They took over houses full of good things,

wells that were already dug,

vineyards, olive trees, and many fruit trees.

They ate until they were full and grew fat;

they enjoyed your great goodness.

²⁶“But they were disobedient and turned against you

and ignored your teachings.

Your prophets warned them to come back to you,

but they killed those prophets

and spoke against you.

²⁷So you handed them over to their enemies,

and their enemies treated them badly.

But in this time of trouble our ancestors cried out to you,

and you heard from heaven.

You had great mercy

and gave them saviors who saved them from the power of their enemies.

²⁸But as soon as they had rest,

they again did what was evil.

So you left them to their enemies

who ruled over them.

When they cried out to you again,

you heard from heaven.

Because of your mercy, you saved them again and again.

²⁹You warned them to return to your teachings,

but they were proud and did not obey your commands.

If someone obeys your laws, he will live,

but they sinned against your laws.

They were stubborn, unwilling, and disobedient.

³⁰You were patient with them for many years

and warned them by your Spirit through the prophets,

but they did not pay attention.

So you handed them over to other countries.

³¹But because your mercy is great, you did not kill them all or leave them.

You are a kind and merciful God.

³²“And so, our God, you are the great and mighty and wonderful God.

You keep your agreement of love.

Do not let all our trouble seem unimportant to you.

This trouble has come to us, to our kings and our leaders,

to our priests and prophets,

to our ancestors and all your people

from the days of the kings of Assyria until today.

³³You have been fair in everything that has happened to us;

you have been loyal, but we have been wicked.

³⁴Our kings, leaders, priests, and ancestors did not obey your teachings;

they did not pay attention to the commands and warnings you gave them.

³⁵Even when our ancestors were living in their kingdom,

enjoying all the good things you had given them,

enjoying the land that was fertile and full of room,

they did not stop their evil ways.

³⁶“Look, we are slaves today

in the land you gave our ancestors.

They were to enjoy its fruit and its good things,

but look, we are slaves here.

³⁷The land’s great harvest belongs to the kings you have put over us

because of our sins.

Those kings rule over us and our cattle as they please,

so we are in much trouble.

The People’s Agreement

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