Nehemiah 9:1-9

The People Acknowledge Their Sin before God

9:1 On the twenty-fourth day of this same month the Israelites assembled; they were fasting and wearing sackcloth, their heads covered with dust. 9:2 Those truly of Israelite descent ¹  separated from all the foreigners, ²  standing and confessing their sins and the iniquities of their ancestors. ³  9:3 For one-fourth of the day they stood in their place and read from the book of the law of the LORD their God, and for another fourth they were confessing their sins ⁴  and worshiping the LORD their God. 9:4 Then the Levites – Jeshua, Binnui, ⁵  Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Kenani – stood on the steps and called out loudly ⁶  to the LORD their God. 9:5 The Levites – Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah – said, “Stand up and bless the LORD your God!”

“May you be blessed, O LORD our God, from age to age. ⁷  May your glorious name ⁸  be blessed; may it be lifted up above all blessing and praise. 9:6 You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, ⁹  along with all their multitude of stars, ¹⁰  the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You impart life to them all, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.

9:7 “You are the LORD God who chose Abram and brought him forth from Ur of the Chaldeans. You changed his name to Abraham. 9:8 When you perceived that his heart was faithful toward you, you established a ¹¹  covenant with him to give his descendants ¹²  the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, and the Girgashites. You have fulfilled your promise, ¹³  for you are righteous.

9:9 “You saw the affliction of our ancestors in Egypt, and you heard their cry at the Red Sea. ¹⁴ 

[9:2]  ¹ tn Heb “the seed of Israel.”

[9:2]  ² tn Heb “sons of a foreigner.”

[9:2]  ³ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 9, 16, 23, 32, 34, 36).

[9:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “confessing.” The words “their sins” are not present in the Hebrew text of v. 3, but are clearly implied here because they are explicitly stated in v. 2.

[9:4]  ⁵ tc Heb “Bani.” The translation reads “Binnui” (so also NAB) rather than the MT reading “Bani.” Otherwise there are two individuals with the same name in this verse. The name “Binnui” appears, for example, in Neh 10:10.

[9:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “in a great voice.”

[9:5]  ⁷ tc The MT reads here only “from age to age,” without the preceding words “May you be blessed, O LORD our God” which are included in the present translation. But apparently something has dropped out of the text. This phrase occurs elsewhere in the OT as a description of the Lord (see Ps 41:13; 106:48), and it seems best to understand it here in that light. The LXX adds “And Ezra said” at the beginning of v. 6 as a transition: “And Ezra said, ‘You alone are the LORD.” Without this addition (which is not included by most modern English translations) the speakers of vv. 9:5b-10:1 continue to be the Levites of v. 5a.

[9:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “the name of your glory.”

[9:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “the heavens of the heavens.”

[9:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “all their host.”

[9:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the” (so NAB).

[9:8]  ¹² tn Heb “seed.”

[9:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “your words.”

[9:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the Sea of Reeds.” Traditionally this is identified as the Red Sea, and the modern designation has been used in the translation for clarity.