Nehemiah 9
All 38 verses in the Clear Bible Translation. Tap a verse to compare the KJV and read what it means.
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- 1On the twenty-fourth day of this month, the children of Israel were assembled with fasting and with sackcloth and earth upon them.
- 2The descendants of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
- 3They stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the LORD their God for a fourth part of the day, and for another fourth part they confessed and worshiped the LORD their God.
- 4Then Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani stood on the stairs of the Levites and cried with a loud voice to the LORD their God.
- 5Then the Levites — Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah — said, "Stand up and bless the LORD your God forever and ever! And blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise."
- 6"You, even you, are LORD alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all things that are on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all; and the host of heaven worships you."
- 7"You are the LORD the God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees and gave him the name Abraham."
- 8"You found his heart faithful before you and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, and the Girgashites — to give it, I say, to his descendants. And you have performed your words, for you are righteous."
- 9"You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry by the Red Sea."
- 10"You showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, and against all his servants, and against all the people of his land, for you knew that they dealt proudly against them. So you made yourself a name, as it is this day."
- 11"You divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land. Their persecutors you threw into the depths, like a stone into the mighty waters."
- 12"Moreover you led them in the day by a cloudy pillar, and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way in which they should go."
- 13"You came down also upon Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments."
- 14"You made known to them your holy Sabbath, and commanded them precepts, statutes, and laws by the hand of Moses your servant."
- 15You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, and brought water out of the rock for their thirst, and promised them that they would go in to possess the land which you had sworn to give them.
- 16"But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and did not listen to your commandments."
- 17"They refused to obey, and were not mindful of your wonders that you did among them, but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage. But you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and you did not forsake them."
- 18"Even when they had made themselves a molten calf and said, 'This is your god that brought you up out of Egypt,' and had committed great provocations,"
- 19"yet you in your manifold mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud did not depart from them by day, to lead them in the way, nor the pillar of fire by night, to show them light and the way in which they should go."
- 20"You also gave your good Spirit to instruct them, and did not withhold your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst.
- 21"Yes, forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not grow old, and their feet did not swell."
- 22Moreover, you gave them kingdoms and nations and divided them into corners, so they possessed the land of Sihon, the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.
- 23"Their children also you multiplied as the stars of heaven, and brought them into the land concerning which you had promised to their fathers that they should go in to possess it."
- 24"So the children went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands, with their kings and the people of the land, that they might do with them as they wished."
- 25They took strong cities and a fertile land, and possessed houses full of all goods, wells dug, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became fat, and delighted themselves in your great goodness.
- 26Nevertheless they were disobedient and rebelled against you, and cast your law behind their backs, and killed your prophets who testified against them to turn them to you, and they greatly provoked you.
- 27"Therefore you delivered them into the hand of their enemies, who oppressed them. And in the time of their trouble, when they cried to you, you heard them from heaven; and according to your great mercies you gave them deliverers, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies."
- 28"But after they had rest, they did evil again before you. Therefore you left them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they returned and cried to you, you heard them from heaven, and many times you delivered them according to your mercies."
- 29You testified against them to bring them back to your law. Yet they acted proudly and did not listen to your commandments. They sinned against your judgments, which if a man follows, he shall live by them. They withdrew the shoulder, hardened their necks, and refused to listen.
- 30Yet for many years you bore with them and testified against them by your spirit in your prophets; yet they would not listen. Therefore, you gave them into the hand of the people of the lands.
- 31"Nevertheless for your great mercies' sake you did not utterly consume them nor forsake them; for you are a gracious and merciful God."
- 32"Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keeps covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem little before you that has come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, on our priests, on our prophets, on our fathers, and on all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria to this day."
- 33"However, you are just in all that is brought upon us; for you have done right, but we have done wickedly."
- 34"Neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers kept your law, nor listened to your commandments and your testimonies, with which you testified against them."
- 35"For they have not served you in their kingdom, and in your great goodness that you gave them, and in the large and fat land which you gave before them, nor did they turn from their wicked works."
- 36Look, we are servants this day. And in the land that you gave to our fathers to eat its fruit and its good things, look, we are servants in it.
- 37"And it yields much increase to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins. Also they have dominion over our bodies and over our cattle at their pleasure, and we are in great distress."
- 38"And because of all this we make a sure covenant and write it; and our princes, Levites, and priests seal it."