1   And in the foure and twenteth day of the moneth the children of Israel came together in fasting and sackeclothes, and earth vpon them.

2   And the seede of the children of Israel was ^note seperated from euerie strange childe: and they stood, and confessed their sinnes, and the iniquities of their fathers.

3   And they rose vp to stand: and they read in the volume of the law of our Lord their God, foure times in a day, and foure times they confessed, and adored our Lord their God.

4   And there arose vpon the steppe of the Leuites Iosue, and Bani, Cedmihel, Sabania, Bonni, Sarebias, Bani, and Chanani: and they cried with a lowde voice to our Lord their God.

5   And the Leuites Iosue and Cedmihel, Bonni, Hasebnia, Serebia, Odaia, Sebnia, and Phathahia, said: Arise, Blesse our Lord your God from eternitie to eternitie: and let them blesse the high name of thy glorie in al blessing & praise.

6   Thou the same o Lord, alone thou hast made heauen, & al the host therof: the earth & al thinges that are in it: the seas and al thinges that are therin: and thou dost giue life to al these thinges, and the host of heau&ebar; adoreth thee.

7   Thou the same o Lord God, which didst choose Abram, & broughtest him out of the fire of the Chaldees, and gauest him the ^note name Abraham.

8   And thou didst finde his hart faithful before thee: and thou madest a couenante with him, that thou wouldest geue him the land of the Chananite, of the Hetheite, and of the Amorrheite, and of the Pherezeite, and of the Iebuseite, & of the Gergeseite, to geue vnto his seede: and thou hast fulfilled thy wordes, because thou art iust.

9   And thou sawest the affliction of ourfathers in Ægypt: & their crie thou didst heare vpon the Read sea.

10   And thou gauest signes & wonders in Pharao, and in al his seruants, and in al the people of his land: for thou didst know that they had done proudly against them: and thou madest thyself a name, as also at this day.

11   And thou didst diuide the sea before them, and they passed througth the midst of the sea in drie land: but their persecutors thou threwest into the depth, as a stone into the rough waters.

12   And in a piller of a cloude thou wast their leader by day, and in a piller of fire

by night, that the way might appeare to them, by the which they went.

13   To mount Sinai also thou didst descend, and spakest with them from heauen, and thou gauest them right iudgements, and the law of truth, ceremonies, and good preceptes.

14   Thy sanctified Sabbath thou didst shew them, and the commandements, and ceremonies, and the law thou didst command them in the hand of Moyses thy seruant.

15   Bread also from heauen thou gauest them in their hunger, and water out of the rocke thou didst bring forth to them thirsting, and thou saidest to them that they should enter in, and possesse the land, vpon which thou didst lift vp thy hand to diliuer it them.

16   But they and our fathers did proudly, and hardned their neckes and heard not thy c&obar;mandements.

17   And they ^note would not heare, and they remembred not thy merueylous workes which thou hast done to them. And they hardned their neckes, and gaue the head to returne to their seruitude, as it were by contention. But thou a propitious God, and gratious, and merciful, long suffering and of much compassion, didst not forsake them.

18   Yea and when they had made to them selues a molten calfe, and had said: This is thy God, which brought thee out of Ægypt: and they did great blasphemies.

19   But thou in thy manie mercies didst not leaue them in the desert: the piller of the cloude departed not from them by day to lead them into the way, and the piller of fire by night to shew them the way by which they should goe.

20   And thou gauest them thy good spirite, which should teach them, and thy Manna thou didst not withhold from their mouth, and thou gauest them water in thirst.

21   Fourtie yeares didst thou feede them in the desert, and nothing was wanting to them, their garmentes waxed not old, and their feete not worne.

22   And thou gauest them kingdomes, and peoples, and didst part lottes vnto them: and they possessed the land of Sehon, and the land of the king Hesebon, and the land of Og the king of Basan.

23   And thou didst multiplie their children as the starres of heauen, & brought them to the land wherof thou hadst said to their fathers, that they should enter and possesse it.

24   And the children came, and possessed the land, and thou didst humble before them the inhabiters of the land, the Chananeites, and gauest them into their hand, and their kinges, and the peoples of the land, that they might doe to them as it pleased them.

25   They therfore tooke the

Nehemias. fensed cities and fatte ground, and possessed houses ful of al goodes: cesternes made by others, vineyardes, and oliuetes, & manie trees that bare fruite: and they did eate, and were filled, and became fatte, and abounded with delicious thinges in thy great goodnes.

26   But they prouoked thee to wrath, & departed from thee, and threw thy law behind their backes: & they killed thy prophetes, which admonished them ernestly to returne to thee: and they did great blasphemies.

27   And thou gauest them into the handes of their enemies, and they afflicted them. And in the time of their tribulation they cried to thee, & thou from heauen didst heare, and according to thy manie c&obar;passions gauest them sauiours, that should saue them from the hand of their enemies.

28   And when they had rested, they returned to do euil in thy sight: & thou didst leaue them in the hand of their enemies, and they possessed them. And they returned, & cried to thee: & thou heardest from heauen, and deliueredst th&ebar; in thy mercies, manie times.

29   And thou didst admonish them that they should returne to thy law. But they did proudly, & heard not thy c&obar;mandmentes, and sinned in thy iudgementes, which a man should do, and shal liue in them, and they gaue the reuolting shoulder, and hardned their necke, neither did they heare.

30   And thou didst prolong manie yeares ouer them, and didst testefie to charge them in thy spirit by the hand of thy Prophetes: and they heard not, and thou didst deliuer them into the hand of the peoples of the nations.

31   But in thy very many mercies thou madest them not into consumption, neither didst thou forsake them: because a God of compassions and gratious art thou.

32   Now therfore O our God, great, strong, and terrible, keeping couenant and mercie, turne not away from thy face al the labour, which hath found vs, our Kinges, and our Princes, and our Priests, and our Prophetes, and our fathers, and al the people from the daies of the king of Assur, vntil this day.

33   And thou art iust in al thinges, that haue come vpon vs: because thou hast done truth, but we haue done wickedly.

34   Our Kinges, our Princes, our Priestes, and our fathers haue not done thy law, and haue not attended thy commandmentes, and thy testimonies which thou hast testified among them.

35   And they in their reignes, and in thy manifold goodnes, which thou gauest them, and in the land most large and fatte, which thou didst deliuer in their

Nehemias. sight, serued not thee, nor returned from their most wicked deuises.

36   Behold we our selues this day are bondmen: and the land, which thou gauest our fathers, that they should eate the bread therof, and the good thinges that are therof, and our selues are seruantes in it.

37   And the fruites therof are multiplied to the kinges, whom thon hast sette ouer vs for our sinnes, and they haue dominion ouer our bodies, and ouer our beastes, according to their wil, and we are in great tribulation.

38   Therfore vpon al these thinges we our selues make a couenant, and write, and our Princes, our Leuites, and our Priestes signe it.

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