Neh 9:6-38 | ESV | STEP | You are the Lord , you alone . You have made heaven , the heaven of heavens , with all their host , the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them ; and the host of heaven worships you.

6 ^{▼▼Septuagint adds And Ezra said} ^b“You are the Lord, you alone. ^cYou have made heaven, ^dthe heaven of heavens, ^ewith all their host, ^fthe earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; ^gand you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you. 7 You are the Lord, the God ^hwho chose Abram and brought him out of ⁱUr of the Chaldeans ^jand gave him the name Abraham. 8 ^kYou found his heart faithful before you, ^land made with him the covenant to give to his offspring ^mthe land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite. ⁿAnd you have kept your promise, for you are righteous.

9 ^o“And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard ^ptheir cry at the Red Sea, 10 ^qand performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for you knew that ^rthey acted arrogantly against our fathers. And ^syou made a name for yourself, as it is to this day. 11 ^tAnd you divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land, and you cast their pursuers into the depths, ^uas a stone into mighty waters. 12 By ^va pillar of cloud you led them in the day, and by a pillar of fire in the night to light for them the way in which they should go. 13 ^wYou came down on Mount Sinai ^xand spoke with them from heaven and gave them ^yright rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments, 14 ^zand you made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them commandments and statutes and a law by Moses your servant. 15 ^aaYou gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and ^abbrought water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and you ^actold them to go in to possess the land that you had sworn to give them.

16 “But they and our fathers ^adacted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. 17 They refused to obey ^aeand were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, ^afgracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. 18 Even ^agwhen they had made for themselves a golden ^{▼▼Hebrew metal} calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ ^aiand had committed great blasphemies, 19 you ^ajin your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. ^akThe pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, ^alnor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. 20 ^amYou gave your good Spirit to instruct them ^anand did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. 21 ^aoForty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

22 “And you gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner. ^apSo they took possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon ^aqand the land of Og king of Bashan. 23 You multiplied their children ^aras the stars of heaven, and you brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess. 24 ^asSo the descendants went in and possessed the land, ^atand you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would. 25 And they captured ^aufortified cities and ^ava rich land, and took possession of ^awhouses full of all good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled ^axand became fat and delighted themselves in ^ayyour great goodness.

26 ^az“Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you ^baand cast your law behind their back ^bband killed your prophets, who ^bchad warned them in order to turn them back to you, ^bdand they committed great blasphemies. 27 ^beTherefore you gave them into the hand of their enemies, who made them suffer. ^bfAnd in the time of their suffering they cried out to you and you heard them from heaven, and according to your great mercies you gave them ^bgsaviors who saved them from the hand of their enemies. 28 ^bhBut after they had rest they did evil again before you, and you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they turned and cried to you, you heard from heaven, ^biand many times you delivered them according to your mercies. 29 ^bjAnd you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yet ^bkthey acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules, ^blwhich if a person does them, he shall live by them, ^bmand they turned a stubborn shoulder ^bnand stiffened their neck and would not obey. 30 Many years ^boyou bore with them ^bpand warned them ^bqby your Spirit through your prophets. ^brYet they would not give ear. ^bsTherefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. 31 Nevertheless, ^btin your great mercies ^buyou did not make an end of them or forsake them, ^bvfor you are a gracious and merciful God.

32 “Now, therefore, our God, ^bwthe great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people, ^bxsince the time of the kings of Assyria until this day. 33 ^byYet you have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully ^bzand we have acted wickedly. 34 Our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law or paid attention to your commandments and your warnings that you gave them. 35 Even in their own kingdom, ^caand amid your great goodness that you gave them, and in the large and ^cbrich land that you set before them, ^ccthey did not serve you or turn from their wicked works. 36 Behold, ^cdwe are slaves this day; in the land that you gave to our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts, behold, we are slaves. 37 ^ceAnd its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins. They rule over our bodies and over our livestock as they please, and we are in great distress.

38 ^{▼▼Ch 10:1 in Hebrew} “Because of all this ^cgwe make a firm covenant in writing; on ^chthe sealed document are the names of ^{▼▼Hebrew lacks the names of} our princes, our Levites, and our priests.