Nehemiah 9

National Confession

1-2 On the 24th day of the month, the Israelites, fasting and dressed in sackcloth, separate themselves from foreigners and confess their sins.

3-5 For the 4th part of the day (3 hours) they read the law, for another 4th, they confess and worship, then several men and Levites in turn stand on the stairs of the Levites and offer praise to God.

6-8 Ezra, in prayer, praises God as Creator and the One who called Abraham and made a covenant with him to give him the lands of the Canaanites, Hittites, etc.

9-15 Ezra recounts God’s hand in their escape from Egypt, the giving of the commandments, His care for them in the wilderness.

16-25 Even when the people rebelled, even after they made a golden calf to worship, God still did not desert them, but brought them to the land and subdued it.

26-31 Nevertheless, they still rebelled against God, killing his prophets. When they began to suffer for it, they would call on Him again, and He would hear them, patient for many years, until finally He turned them over to their enemies. Nevertheless, He still preserved their nation in captivity.

32-35 Ezra appeals for mercy, for God to consider their present hardships, to remember His faithfulness in times past even in Israel’s wickedness.

36-37 Now they are slaves in their own land, paying tribute to kings who have “power also over our bodies and over our livestock at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.” They were able to return to Jerusalem only by permission of a foreign king, not fully released in their obligations to Persian kings.

Making of a Covenant

38 They put an agreement in writing, signed by officials, Levites and priests.