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The
Israelites Confess Their Sins
9:1 Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month
the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth upon them.
9:2 And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all
strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the
iniquities of their fathers.
9:3 And they stood up in their place, and read in the book
of the law of the LORD their God one fourth part of the day;
and another fourth part they confessed, and worshipped the
LORD their God.
9:4 Then stood up upon the stairs, of the Levites, Jeshua,
and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and
Chenani, and cried with a loud voice unto the LORD their
God.
9:5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah,
Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, Stand up
and bless the LORD your God for ever and ever: and blessed
be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing
and praise.
9:6 Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven,
the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and
all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is
therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of
heaven worshippeth thee.
9:7 Thou art the LORD the God, who didst choose Abram, and
broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest
him the name of Abraham;
9:8 And foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest
a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the
Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the
Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his
seed, and hast performed thy words; for thou art righteous:
9:9 And didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt,
and heardest their cry by the Red sea;
9:10 And shewedst signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on
all his servants, and on all the people of his land: for
thou knewest that they dealt proudly against them. So didst
thou get thee a name, as it is this day.
9:11 And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that
they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and
their persecutors thou threwest into the deeps, as a stone
into the mighty waters.
9:12 Moreover thou leddest them in the day by a cloudy
pillar; and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them
light in the way wherein they should go.
9:13 Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest
with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and
true laws, good statutes and commandments:
9:14 And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and
commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand
of Moses thy servant:
9:15 And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger,
and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for
their thirst, and promisedst them that they should go in to
possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them.
9:16 But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened
their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments,
9:17 And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy
wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their
necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return
to their bondage: but thou art a God ready to pardon,
gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness,
and forsookest them not.
9:18 Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said,
This is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had
wrought great provocations;
9:19 Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not
in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from
them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of
fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they
should go.
9:20 Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and
withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them
water for their thirst.
9:21 Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the
wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed
not old, and their feet swelled not.
9:22 Moreover thou gavest them kingdoms and nations, and
didst divide them into corners: so they possessed the land
of Sihon, and the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land
of Og king of Bashan.
9:23 Their children also multipliedst thou as the stars of
heaven, and broughtest them into the land, concerning which
thou hadst promised to their fathers, that they should go in
to possess it.
9:24 So the children went in and possessed the land, and
thou subduedst before them the inhabitants of the land, the
Canaanites, and gavest them into their hands, with their
kings, and the people of the land, that they might do with
them as they would.
9:25 And they took strong cities, and a fat land, and
possessed houses full of all goods, wells digged, vineyards,
and oliveyards, and fruit trees in abundance: so they did
eat, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted
themselves in thy great goodness.
9:26 Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled
against thee, and cast thy law behind their backs, and slew
thy prophets which testified against them to turn them to
thee, and they wrought great provocations.
9:27 Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their
enemies, who vexed them: and in the time of their trouble,
when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven;
and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them
saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies.
9:28 But after they had rest, they did evil again before
thee: therefore leftest thou them in the land of their
enemies, so that they had the dominion over them: yet when
they returned, and cried unto thee, thou heardest them from
heaven; and many times didst thou deliver them according to
thy mercies;
9:29 And testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring
them again unto thy law: yet they dealt proudly, and
hearkened not unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy
judgments, (which if a man do, he shall live in them;) and
withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would
not hear.
9:30 Yet many years didst thou forbear them, and
testifiedst against them by thy spirit in thy prophets: yet
would they not give ear: therefore gavest thou them into the
hand of the people of the lands.
9:31 Nevertheless for thy great mercies' sake thou didst
not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a
gracious and merciful God.
9:32 Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the
terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy, let not all
the trouble seem little before thee, that hath come upon us,
on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our
prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people, since
the time of the kings of Assyria unto this day.
9:33 Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us;
for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly:
9:34 Neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor
our fathers, kept thy law, nor hearkened unto thy
commandments and thy testimonies, wherewith thou didst
testify against them.
9:35 For they have not served thee in their kingdom, and in
thy great goodness that thou gavest them, and in the large
and fat land which thou gavest before them, neither turned
they from their wicked works.
9:36 Behold, we are servants this day, and for the land
that thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof
and the good thereof, behold, we are servants in it:
9:37 And it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou
hast 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.
The Agreement of the
People
9:38 And because of all this we make a sure
covenant, and write it; and our princes, Levites, and
priests, seal unto it. |
Cults 
Why Did God Permit Sin?
