¹Then on the twenty-fourth day of this month, the sons of Israel assembled, fasting and in sackcloth and with soil on them. ²And the seed of Israel were separated from all the foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. ³And they stood up in their place, and they read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for a quarter of a day, and for another quarter they confessed and worshipped the Lord their God. ⁴Then Jeshua and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Chenani arose on the Levites' platform and cried out in a loud voice to the Lord their God. ⁵And the Levites, Jeshua and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah said,

“Arise and bless the Lord your God

From age to age.”

“And may your glorious name be blessed,

Which is exalted above all blessing and praise.

⁶You alone are the Lord.

You made heaven,

The heaven of heavens and all their array,

The earth and everything on it,

The seas and everything in them,

And you give them all life.

And the array of heaven worships you.

⁷You are the Lord God

Who chose Abram

And brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees

And appointed his name as Abraham.

⁸And you found his heart to be faithful before you,

And you made a covenant with him

To give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite

And the Perizzite and the Jebusite and the Girgashite

– To give it to his seed –

And you fulfilled your words,

For you are righteous.

⁹And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt,

And you heard their cry at the Red Sea.

¹⁰And you performed signs and miracles against Pharaoh

And against all his servants

And against all the people of his land,

For you know that they acted presumptuously against them,

And you made yourself a name,

As it is today.

¹¹And you divided the sea in front of them,

And they crossed in the middle of the sea on dry land,

But you cast those chasing them into the depths,

Like a stone in fierce waters.

¹²And by day you led them with a column of cloud,

And by night with a pillar of fire,

To light up for them the way

By which they were to go.

¹³And you came down onto Mount Sinai,

And you spoke with them from heaven,

And you gave them upright judgments

And truthful laws

And good statutes and commandments.

¹⁴And you made your holy Sabbath known to them,

And you gave them commandments and statutes and law

Through the intermediacy of Moses your servant.

¹⁵And you gave them bread from heaven

When they were hungry,

And you brought water out of a rock for them

When they were thirsty,

And you instructed them to come and inherit the land

Concerning which you took an oath

To give it to them.

¹⁶But they and our fathers acted presumptuously,

And they became stiff-necked

And did not heed your commandments.

¹⁷And they refused to hear,

And they did not remember your wonders

Which you performed with them,

And they became stiff-necked,

And they appointed a head man

So as to return to their slavery in their rebellion.

But you are a God of forgiveness,

Gracious and compassionate,

Forbearing and of great kindness,

And you did not desert them.

¹⁸Even when they made themselves a cast calf

And said, ‘This is your God

Who brought you up out of Egypt’,

And they committed gross blasphemies,

¹⁹You still in your many mercies

Did not abandon them in the desert.

The column of cloud did not go away from them by day,

It being to lead them on the way,

Nor did the pillar of fire by night,

It being to give them light

And to light up the way which they were to go.

²⁰And you gave your good spirit to enlighten them,

And you did not withhold your manna from their mouth,

And you gave them water for their thirst.

²¹And you sustained them for forty years in the desert;

They did not lack anything.

Their clothes did not wear out,

And their feet did not swell.

²²And you gave them kingdoms and peoples,

And you apportioned them territory,

And they inherited the land of Sihon

And the land of the king of Heshbon

And the land of Og king of Bashan.

²³And you increased the number of their sons like the stars of the sky,

And you brought them to the land

Which you told their fathers to come into

And inherit.

²⁴And the sons came and inherited the land,

And you subdued the inhabitants of the land

– The Canaanites – at their advance,

And you delivered them into their hand,

Including their kings and the various peoples of the land,

To do what they wanted with them.

²⁵And they captured fortified cities and fertile land,

And they inherited houses full of all good accessories

– Hewn cisterns, vineyards and olive groves

And orchard trees in abundance –

And they ate and were satisfied and became fat,

And they lived luxuriously in your great goodness.

²⁶But they became contentious

And they rebelled against you,

And they cast your law behind their back,

And they killed your prophets,

Who testified against them

To turn them back to you,

And they committed gross blasphemies.

²⁷Then you delivered them into the hand of their adversaries,

Who maltreated them.

Then in the time of their distress they cried out to you,

And you heard them from heaven.

And according to your many mercies, you gave them saviours

Who saved them from the hand of their adversaries.

²⁸But when they had quiet,

They again did what was wrong before you,

And you abandoned them in the hand of their enemies,

Who trod them down.

Then they cried out to you again,

And you heard from heaven,

And you saved them according to your mercies many times.

²⁹And you testified against them,

So as to bring them back to your law,

But they acted presumptuously

And did not heed your commandments.

And as for your judicial principles, they sinned against them

– Principles which a man shall observe and live by –

And they shrugged their wayward shoulders

And stiffened their necks

And did not heed them.

³⁰And you endured them for many years,

And you testified against them by your spirit

Through the intermediacy of your prophets,

But they did not listen,

And you delivered them into the hand of the nations of the various countries.

³¹But in your many mercies,

You did not finish with them,

And you did not abandon them,

For you are a gracious and compassionate God.

³²And now, O God of ours,

The great and mighty and awesome God

Who keeps the covenant and maintains kindness,

Do not let all the weariness be considered little before you,

Which has come over us,

Over our kings, our officials,

And our priests and our prophets,

And our fathers, and all your people,

From the days of the kings of Assyria to this day.

³³But you are righteous

Concerning everything which has come over us,

For you have acted truthfully,

Whereas we have acted wickedly,

³⁴And our kings, our officials,

Our priests and our fathers

Did not observe your law

And did not heed your commandments or your testimonies

Which you testified against them.

³⁵And they – in their kingdom

And despite your great generosity which you showed them,

And in the broad and fertile land which you gave them in their presence –

Did not serve you

And did not turn away from their wicked deeds.

³⁶Behold, we are servants today,

And as for the land which you gave to our fathers,

To eat its fruit and its good produce,

Behold, we are servants on it.

³⁷And its produce is abundant,

Destined for kings

Whom you have set over us for our sins,

And they rule over our bodies and our cattle as they wish,

And we are in great distress.

³⁸And because of all this, we are making a treaty

And putting it in writing,

And the parties participating in sealing it

Are our officials, Levites and priests.”