Nehemiah 9:25-38 ▼

25 And they took fortified cities and a rich land, and they possessed houses full of all good, wells dug, vineyards, and olive groves and trees of fruit in abundance. And they ate and were filled and grew fat and lived luxuriously in Your great goodness.

26 And they were disobedient and rebelled against You, and they cast Your law behind their backs, and Your prophets they killed, those who testified against them, so as to turn them back to You, and they did great blasphemies.

27 And You gave them into the hand of their enemies, and they brought distress to them. And in the time of their distress they cried to You, and You from the heavens heard, and according to Your abundant mercies You gave to them saviors, and they saved them from the hand of their enemies.

28 And after rest for them, again they did evil before You, and you left them to the hand of their enemies, and they ruled over them. And they returned and cried out to You, and You from the heavens heard, and You delivered them according to Your mercies many times.

29 And you testified against them to bring them back to Your instruction, and they still seethed and did not listen to Your commands. And Your just laws they sinned against, which if a man does them, he shall live by them; and they gave to be stubborn the shoulder, and their neck they hardened, and they would not listen.

30 And You drew over them many years, and You testified with them by Your Spirit, by the hand of Your prophets. And they would not give an ear, and You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.

31 And in Your great mercies You did not make of them a complete end, nor did You abandon them, for You are a gracious and merciful God.

32 And now, our God—the God the great, the mighty, and fearsome, keeping the covenant and the kindness, should not all the hardship that has found us seem little before Your face—for our kings, for our princes, and for our priests, and for our prophets, and for our fathers, and for all Your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until this day.

33 And You are righteous over all that has come upon us, for faithfully You have acted, and we have been wicked.

34 And our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers, they have not done Your law, and they have not attended to Your commandments and to Your testimonies that You testified against them.

35 And they, in their kingdom, in your abundant goodness, that You gave to them, and in the land broad and rich that You gave before their face, they did not serve You, and not did they turn away from their evil deeds.

36 Behold! We are this day slaves, and the land that You gave to our fathers to eat its fruit and its goodness, behold—we are slaves in it.

37 And its produce is multiplying for the kings whom You have given to be over us in our sins, and over our bodies to be ruling, and over our livestock according to their pleasure, and we are in great distress.

38 And in all this we are cutting a firm covenant, and writing even on the sealed document our leaders, our Levites, and our priests.”