Dual Panel1ON the twenty-fourth day of this month the Israelites, clothed in sackcloth and with dust on their heads, assembled for a fast.
2Those who were of Israelite descent separated themselves from all who were foreigners; they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their forefathers.
3Then, while they stood up where they were, the book of the law of the LORD their God was read for one quarter of the day, and another quarter of the day they spent in confession and in worshipping the LORD their God.
4On the steps assigned to the Levites stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Kenani, and they cried aloud to the LORD their God.
5Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless the LORD your God in these words: From everlasting to everlasting may your glorious name be blessed and exalted above all blessing and praise.
6“You alone are the LORD; you created the heavens, the highest heavens with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to them all, and the heavenly host worships you.
7“You are the LORD, the God who chose Abram, who brought him from Ur of the Chaldees and named him Abraham.
8Finding him faithful you made a covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, and Perizzites, Jebusites, and Girgashites; you fulfilled your promise, for you are just.
9“You saw the misery of our forefathers in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea.
10You worked signs and portents against Pharaoh, against all his courtiers and the people of his land, for you knew how arrogantly they treated our forefathers; and you won for yourself renown that lives to this day.
11You divided asunder the sea before them, and they passed through on dry ground; but their pursuers you flung into the depths, like a stone flung into turbulent waters.
12By a pillar of cloud you guided them in the daytime, and at night by a pillar of fire to light the road they were to travel.
13You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke to them from heaven; you gave them right judgements and true laws, statutes and commandments which were good.
14You made known to them your holy sabbath, and through Moses your servant you gave them commandments, statutes, and laws.
15You gave them bread from heaven to stay their hunger and brought water out from a rock to quench their thirst. You bade them enter and take possession of the land which you had solemnly sworn to give them.
16“But they, our forefathers, were arrogant; stubbornly they flouted your commandments.
17They refused to listen, forgetful of the miracles you had accomplished among them. In their stubbornness they appointed a leader to bring them back to slavery in Egypt. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, long-suffering and ever constant, and you did not abandon them.
18“Even when they made for themselves the metal image of a bull-calf and said, ‘This is your god who brought you up from Egypt,’ and were guilty of gross blasphemies,
19you in your great compassion did not abandon them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud never failed to guide them on their journey by day, nor did the pillar of fire fail by night to light the road they were to travel.
20You gave your good spirit to instruct them; you did not withhold your manna, and you gave them water for their thirst.
21During forty years you sustained them; in the wilderness they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out, and their feet were not swollen.
22“You gave them kings and their people as spoils of war. They took possession of the land of King Sihon of Heshbon and the land of King Og of Bashan.
23You made their descendants numerous, countless as the stars in the sky, and brought them into the land you had promised their forefathers they would enter and possess.
24When their descendants came into the land to take possession of it, you subdued the Canaanite inhabitants before them, giving kings and peoples into their hands to do with them as they pleased.
25They captured fortified towns and fertile land, taking possession of houses filled with all good things, of rock-hewn cisterns, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. They ate and were satisfied and grew fat; they found delight in your great goodness.
26“In growing defiance, they rebelled and turned their backs on your law. They killed your prophets, who with warnings admonished them to bring them again to you; they were guilty of great blasphemies.
27You handed them over to enemies to be oppressed. But when they, under oppression, appealed to you, from heaven you heard them and in your great compassion sent saviours to save them from their enemies.
28After some respite again they did what was wrong in your eyes, and you abandoned them to their enemies, who held them in subjection. Yet once more they appealed to you, and time after time you heard them from heaven and in your compassion saved them.
29To bring them back to your law you solemnly warned them, but arrogantly they flouted your commandments, sinning against the ordinances which bring life to those who keep them. Stubbornly they turned aside; in their obstinacy they would not obey.
30For many years you were patient and your spirit admonished them through the prophets. Still they would not listen, and so you handed them over to the peoples of other countries.
31Nevertheless in your great compassion you did not make an end of them or forsake them; for you are a gracious and compassionate God.
32“Now, great and mighty and terrible God, faithfully keeping covenant, our God, do not regard as a small thing the hardships that have befallen us, our kings and princes, our priests, our prophets, our forefathers, and all your people from the time of the kings of Assyria up to the present day.
33In all that has come upon us you have been just, for you have kept faith while we have done wrong.
34Our kings, our princes, our priests, and our forefathers did not keep your law; they paid no heed to your commandments and the warnings you gave them.
35Even in their own kingdom, while they were enjoying the great prosperity you gave them, and the broad, fertile land you bestowed on them, they did not serve you or renounce their evil ways.
36“Today we are slaves, slaves here in the land which you gave to our forefathers so that they might eat its fruits and enjoy its good things.
37All its produce now goes to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins. They have power over our bodies, and they do as they please with our livestock: we are in dire distress.
38“Because of all this we make a binding declaration in writing, and our princes, our Levites, and our priests witness the sealing.