Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with ^afasting, and with sackclothes, and earth upon them.

 2 And the seed of Israel ^aseparated themselves from all ^bstrangers, and stood and ^cconfessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.

 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.

 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.

 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.

 6 Thou, even thou, art ^aLord alone; thou hast made ^bheaven, 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 ^cpreservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.

 7 Thou art the Lord the God, who didst choose ^aAbram, and broughtest him forth out of ^bUr of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham;

 8 And foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest a ^acovenant 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 ^brighteous:

 9 And didst see the ^aaffliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry by the ^bRed 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 ^aname, as it is this day.

 11 And thou didst ^adivide 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 ^bstone into the mighty waters.

 12 Moreover thou leddest them in the day by a cloudy ^apillar; 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 ^astatutes and commandments:

 14 And madest known unto them thy holy ^asabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant:

 15 And gavest them ^abread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth ^bwater for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promisedst them that they should go in to ^cpossess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them.

 16 But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and ^ahardened 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 ^areturn to their bondage: but thou art a God ready to ^bpardon, gracious and ^cmerciful, slow to ^danger, and of great ^ekindness, and forsookest them not.