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Also Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law: and the people [stood] in their place.

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They read in the book, in the law of God, distinctly; and they gave the sense, so that they understood the reading.

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Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites who taught the people, said to all the people, “This day is holy to Yahweh your God. Don’t mourn, nor weep.” For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.

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Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Don’t be grieved; for the joy of Yahweh is your strength.”

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So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, “Hold your peace, for the day is holy; neither be grieved.”

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All the people went their way to eat, and to drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.

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On the second day were gathered together the heads of fathers’ [houses] of all the people, the priests, and the Levites, to Ezra the scribe, even to give attention to the words of the law.

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They found written in the law, how that Yahweh had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month;

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and that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, “Go out to the mountain, and get olive branches, and branches of wild olive, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written.”

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So the people went out, and brought them, and made themselves booths, everyone on the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the broad place of the water gate, and in the broad place of the gate of Ephraim.

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All the assembly of those who were come again out of the captivity made booths, and lived in the booths; for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun to that day the children of Israel had not done so. There was very great gladness.

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Also day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. They kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according to the ordinance.

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Now in the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackcloth, and earth on them.

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The seed of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.

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They stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of Yahweh their God a fourth part of the day; and [another] fourth part they confessed, and worshiped Yahweh their God.

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Then stood up on the stairs of the Levites, Jeshua, and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, [and] Chenani, and cried with a loud voice to Yahweh their God.

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Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, [and] Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless Yahweh your God from everlasting to everlasting! Bessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise!

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You are Yahweh, even you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their army, the earth and all things that are on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all. The army of heaven worships you.

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You are Yahweh, the God who chose Abram, and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gave him the name of Abraham,

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and found his heart faithful before you, and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite, and the Girgashite, to give it to his seed, and have performed your words; for you are righteous.

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“You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry by the Red Sea,

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and showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, and against all his servants, and against all the people of his land; for you knew that they dealt proudly against them, and made a name for yourself, as it is this day.

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You divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and you cast their pursuers into the depths, as a stone into the mighty waters.

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Moreover, in a pillar of cloud you led them by day; and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light in the way in which they should go.

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“You came down also on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments,

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and made known to them your holy Sabbath, and commanded them commandments, and statutes, and a law, by Moses your servant,

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and gave them bread from the sky for their hunger, and brought forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and commanded them that they should go in to possess the land which you had sworn to give them.

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“But they and our fathers dealt proudly and hardened their neck, didn’t listen to your commandments,

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and refused to obey, neither were they mindful of your wonders that you did among them, but hardened their neck, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage. But you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and didn’t forsake them.

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Yes, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed awful blasphemies;

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yet you in your manifold mercies didn’t forsake them in the wilderness: the pillar of cloud didn’t depart from over them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way in which they should go.

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You gave also your good Spirit to instruct them, and didn’t withhold your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst.

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“Yes, forty years you sustained them in the wilderness. They lacked nothing. Their clothes didn’t grow old, and their feet didn’t swell.

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Moreover you gave them kingdoms and peoples, which you allotted according to their portions. So they possessed the land of Sihon, even the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.

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You also multiplied their children as the stars of the sky, and brought them into the land concerning which you said to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it.

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“So the children went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands, with their kings, and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they pleased.

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They took fortified cities, and a rich land, and possessed houses full of all good things, cisterns dug out, vineyards, and olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate, were filled, became fat, and delighted themselves in your great goodness.

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“Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against you, and cast your law behind their back, and killed your prophets that testified against them to turn them again to you, and they committed awful blasphemies.

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Therefore you delivered them into the hand of their adversaries, who distressed them. In the time of their trouble, when they cried to you, you heard from heaven; and according to your manifold mercies you gave them saviors who saved them out of the hand of their adversaries.

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But after they had rest, they did evil again before you; therefore left you them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had the dominion over them; yet when they returned, and cried to you, you heard from heaven; and many times you delivered them according to your mercies,

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and testified against them, that you might bring them again to your law. Yet they dealt proudly, and didn’t listen to your commandments, but sinned against your ordinances, (which if a man does, he shall live in them), turned their backs, stiffened their neck, and would not hear.

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Yet many years you put up with them, and testified against them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet would they not give ear. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.

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“Nevertheless in your manifold mercies you did not make a full end of them, nor forsake them; for you are a gracious and merciful God.

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Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness, don’t let all the travail seem little before you, that has come on us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria to this day.

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However you are just in all that is come on us; for you have dealt truly, but we have done wickedly;

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neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept your law, nor listened to your commandments and your testimonies with which you testified against them.

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For they have not served you in their kingdom, and in your great goodness that you gave them, and in the large and rich land which you gave before them, neither did they turn from their wicked works.

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“Behold, we are servants this day, and as for the land that you gave to our fathers to eat its fruit and its good, behold, we are servants in it.

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It yields much increase to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins: also they have power over our bodies, and over our livestock, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.

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Yet for all this, we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, our Levites, [and] our priests, seal to it.”

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Now those who sealed were: Nehemiah the governor, the son of Hacaliah, and Zedekiah,

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Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah,

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Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah,

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Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch,

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Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah,

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Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch,

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Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin,

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Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah; these were the priests.

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The Levites: namely, Jeshua the son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel;

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and their brothers, Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan,

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Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah,

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Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah,

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Hodiah, Bani, Beninu.

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The chiefs of the people: Parosh, Pahathmoab, Elam, Zattu, Bani,

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Bunni, Azgad, Bebai,

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Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin,

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Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur,

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Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai,

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Hariph, Anathoth, Nobai,

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Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir,

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Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua,

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Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah,

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Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub,

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Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek,

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Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah,

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and Ahiah, Hanan, Anan,

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Malluch, Harim, Baanah.

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The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethinim, and all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, everyone who had knowledge, and understanding–

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they joined with their brothers, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of Yahweh our Lord, and his ordinances and his statutes;

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and that we would not give our daughters to the peoples of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons;

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and if the peoples of the land bring wares or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy of them on the Sabbath, or on a holy day; and that we would forego the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt.

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Also we made ordinances for ourselves, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God;

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for the show bread, and for the continual meal offering, and for the continual burnt offering, for the Sabbaths, for the new moons, for the set feasts, and for the holy things, and for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God.

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We cast lots, the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God, according to our fathers’ houses, at times appointed, year by year, to burn on the altar of Yahweh our God, as it is written in the law;

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and to bring the first fruits of our ground, and the first fruits of all fruit of all kinds of trees, year by year, to the house of Yahweh;

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also the firstborn of our sons, and of our livestock, as it is written in the law, and the firstborn of our herds and of our flocks, to bring to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God;

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and that we should bring the first fruits of our dough, and our wave offerings, and the fruit of all kinds of trees, the new wine and the oil, to the priests, to the rooms of the house of our God; and the tithes of our ground to the Levites; for they, the Levites, take the tithes in all the cities of our tillage.

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The priest the son of Aaron shall be with the Levites, when the Levites take tithes: and the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the rooms, into the treasure house.

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For the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the wave offering of the grain, of the new wine, and of the oil, to the rooms, where are the vessels of the sanctuary, and the priests who minister, and the porters, and the singers. We will not forsake the house of our God.

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The princes of the people lived in Jerusalem: the rest of the people also cast lots, to bring one of ten to dwell in Jerusalem the holy city, and nine parts in the [other] cities.

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The people blessed all the men who willingly offered themselves to dwell in Jerusalem.

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Now these are the chiefs of the province who lived in Jerusalem: but in the cities of Judah lived everyone in his possession in their cities, [to wit], Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the Nethinim, and the children of Solomon’s servants.

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In Jerusalem lived certain of the children of Judah, and of the children of Benjamin. Of the children of Judah: Athaiah the son of Uzziah, the son of Zechariah, the son of Amariah, the son of Shephatiah, the son of Mahalalel, of the children of Perez;

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and Maaseiah the son of Baruch, the son of Colhozeh, the son of Hazaiah, the son of Adaiah, the son of Joiarib, the son of Zechariah, the son of the Shilonite.

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All the sons of Perez who lived in Jerusalem were four hundred sixty-eight valiant men.

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These are the sons of Benjamin: Sallu the son of Meshullam, the son of Joed, the son of Pedaiah, the son of Kolaiah, the son of Maaseiah, the son of Ithiel, the son of Jeshaiah.

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After him Gabbai, Sallai, nine hundred twenty-eight.

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Joel the son of Zichri was their overseer; and Judah the son of Hassenuah was second over the city.

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Of the priests: Jedaiah the son of Joiarib, Jachin,

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Seraiah the son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, the ruler of the house of God,