4 Then stood up upon the stairs, of the Levites, Jeshua, and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni,
Sherebiah, Bani, andChenani, and cried with a loud voice unto the LORD their God.
5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and
Pethahiah, said, Stand up andbless the LORD your God for ever and ever: and blessed be thy
glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.
6 Thou, eventhou, artLORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their
host, the earth, and all thingsthat aretherein, the seas, and all that istherein, and thou
preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.
7 Thou artthe LORD the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the
Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham;
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 artrighteous:
9 And didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry by the Red sea;
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 isthis day.
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.
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.
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:
14 And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes,
and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant:
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.
16 But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy
commandments,
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 arta God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and
forsookest them not.
18 Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This isthy God that brought thee up
out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations;
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.
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.
21 Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so thatthey lacked nothing;
their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 themfrom heaven; and according
to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their
enemies.
28 But after they had rest, they did evil again before thee: therefore leftest thou them in the
hand of their enemies, so that they had the dominion over them: yet when they returned, and
cried unto thee, thou heardest themfrom heaven; and many times didst thou deliver them
according to thy mercies;
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.
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.
31 Nevertheless for thy great mercies' sake thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake
them; for thou arta gracious and merciful God.
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.
33 Howbeit thou artjust in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have
done wickedly:
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.
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.
36 Behold, we areservants this day, and forthe land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eat
the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we areservants in it:
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.
38 And because of all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, Levites, and
priests, seal unto it.
1 Now those that sealed were, Nehemiah, the Tirshatha, the son of Hachaliah, and Zidkijah,
2 Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah,
3 Pashur, Amariah, Malchijah,
4 Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch,

5 Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah,
6 Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch,
7 Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin,
8 Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah: these werethe priests.
9 And the Levites: both Jeshua the son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel;
10 And their brethren, Shebaniah, Hodijah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan,
11 Micha, Rehob, Hashabiah,
12 Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah,
13 Hodijah, Bani, Beninu.
14 The chief of the people; Parosh, Pahathmoab, Elam, Zatthu, Bani,
15 Bunni, Azgad, Bebai,
16 Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin,
17 Ater, Hizkijah, Azzur,
18 Hodijah, Hashum, Bezai,
19 Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai,
20 Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir,
21 Meshezabeel, Zadok, Jaddua,
22 Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah,
23 Hoshea, Hananiah, Hashub,
24 Hallohesh, Pileha, Shobek,
25 Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah,
26 And Ahijah, Hanan, Anan,
27 Malluch, Harim, Baanah.
28 And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethinims,
and all they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God,
their wives, their sons, and their daughters, every one having knowledge, and having
understanding;
29 They clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk
in God's law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the
commandments of the LORD our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes;
30 And that we would not give our daughters unto the people of the land, nor take their
daughters for our sons:
31 And ifthe people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell, thatwe
would not buy it of them on the sabbath, or on the holy day: and thatwe would leave the seventh
year, and the exaction of every debt.
32 Also we made ordinances for us, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel
for the service of the house of our God;
33 For the shewbread, and for the continual meat offering, and for the continual burnt offering,
of the sabbaths, of the new moons, for the set feasts, and for the holy things, and for the sin
offerings to make an atonement for Israel, and forall the work of the house of our God.
34 And we cast the lots among the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood offering,
to bring itinto the house of our God, after the houses of our fathers, at times appointed year by
year, to burn upon the altar of the LORD our God, as it iswritten in the law:
35 And to bring the firstfruits of our ground, and the firstfruits of all fruit of all trees, year
by year, unto the house of the LORD:
36 Also the firstborn of our sons, and of our cattle, as it iswritten in the law, and the
firstlings of our herds and of our flocks, to bring to the house of our God, unto the priests that
minister in the house of our God:
37 And thatwe should bring the firstfruits of our dough, and our offerings, and the fruit of all