Nehemiah 9: Confession and Worship- Clear & Engaging Audio Bible Reading | Israel’s Sins, God’s Mercy, and Renewal of the Covenant

Immerse yourself in Nehemiah 9, a powerful chapter of confession and worship. Listen to this clear and engaging audio recording to discover Israel’s sins, God’s mercy, and the renewal of the covenant. Perfect for study, reflection, or meditation, experience the compelling events depicted in Nehemiah 9 and let the Scriptures come alive.

NEHEMIAH 9 (NIV)

1 On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered
together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads.

2
Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They
stood in their places and confessed their sins and the sins of their
ancestors.

3 They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of
the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in
confession and in worshiping the Lord their God.

4 Standing on the stairs of
the Levites were Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and
Kenani. They cried out with loud voices to the Lord their God.

5 And the
Levites—Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and
Pethahiah—said: “Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from
everlasting to everlasting.”
“Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and
praise.

6 You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest
heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas
and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of
heaven worship you.

7 “You are the Lord God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the
Chaldeans and named him Abraham.

8 You found his heart faithful to you, and
you made a covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the
Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites and Girgashites. You
have kept your promise because you are righteous.

9 “You saw the suffering of our ancestors in Egypt; you heard their cry at the
Red Sea.

10 You sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his
officials and all the people of his land, for you knew how arrogantly the
Egyptians treated them. You made a name for yourself, which remains to this
day.

11 You divided the sea before them, so that they passed through it on dry
ground, but you hurled their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into
mighty waters.

12 By day you led them with a pillar of cloud, and by night
with a pillar of fire to give them light on the way they were to take.

13 “You came down on Mount Sinai; you spoke to them from heaven. You gave them
regulations and laws that are just and right, and decrees and commands that
are good.

14 You made known to them your holy Sabbath and gave them commands,
decrees and laws through your servant Moses.

15 In their hunger you gave them
bread from heaven and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock;
you told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn with
uplifted hand to give them.

16 “But they, our ancestors, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and they did
not obey your commands.

17 They refused to listen and failed to remember the
miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their
rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are
a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in
love. Therefore you did not desert them,

18 even when they cast for themselves
an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your god, who brought you up out of
Egypt,’ or when they committed awful blasphemies.

19 “Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the
wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud did not fail to guide them on their
path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take.

20 You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna
from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst.

21 For forty
years you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their clothes
did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen.

22 “You gave them kingdoms and nations, allotting to them even the remotest
frontiers. They took over the country of Sihon king of Heshbon and the country
of Og king of Bashan.

23 You made their children as numerous as the stars in
the sky, and you brought them into the land that you told their parents to
enter and possess.

24 Their children went in and took possession of the land.
You subdued before them the Canaanites, who lived in the land; you gave the
Canaanites into their hands, along with their kings and the peoples of the
land, to deal with them as they pleased.

25 They captured fortified cities and
fertile land; they took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good
things, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees in
abundance. They ate to the full and were well-nourished; they reveled in your
great goodness.

26 “But they were disobedient and rebelled against you; they turned their
backs on your law. They killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to
turn them back to you; they committed awful blasphemies.

27 So you delivered
them into the hands of their enemies, who oppressed them. But when they were
oppressed they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great
compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their
enemies.

28 “But as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in your
sight. Then you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled
over them. And when they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in
your compassion you delivered them time after time.

29 “You warned them in order to turn them back to your law, but they became
arrogant and disobeyed your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, of
which you said, ‘The person who obeys them will live by them.’ Stubbornly they
turned their backs on you, became stiff-necked and refused to listen.

30 For
many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you warned them through
your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you gave them into the hands of
the neighboring peoples.

31 But in your great mercy you did not put an end to
them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.

32 “Now therefore, our God, the great God, mighty and awesome, who keeps his
covenant of love, do not let all this hardship seem trifling in your eyes—the
hardship that has come on us, on our kings and leaders, on our priests and
prophets, on our ancestors and all your people, from the days of the kings of
Assyria until today.

33 In all that has happened to us, you have remained
righteous; you have acted faithfully, while we acted wickedly.

34 Our kings,
our leaders, our priests and our ancestors did not follow your law; they did
not pay attention to your commands or the statutes you warned them to keep.

35
Even while they were in their kingdom, enjoying your great goodness to them in
the spacious and fertile land you gave them, they did not serve you or turn
from their evil ways.

36 “But see, we are slaves today, slaves in the land you gave our ancestors so
they could eat its fruit and the other good things it produces.

37 Because of
our sins, its abundant harvest goes to the kings you have placed over us. They
rule over our bodies and our cattle as they please. We are in great distress.

38 “In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement, putting it in
writing, and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seals
to it.”