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Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, "Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting.
1Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.
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2"You are the LORD, you alone.
3You have made heaven,
4the heaven of heavens,
5with all their host,
6the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them;
7and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.
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You are the LORD, the God
8who chose Abram and brought him out of
9Ur of the Chaldeans
10and gave him the name Abraham.
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11You found his heart faithful before you,
12and made with him the covenant to give to his offspring
13the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite.
14And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous.
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15"And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard
16their cry at the Red Sea,
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17and performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for you knew that
18they acted arrogantly against our fathers. And
19you made a name for yourself, as it is to this day.
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20And you divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land, and you cast their pursuers into the depths,
21as a stone into mighty waters.
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By
22a pillar of cloud you led them in the day, and by a pillar of fire in the night to light for them the way in which they should go.
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23You came down on Mount Sinai
24and spoke with them from heaven and gave them
25right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments,
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26and you made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them commandments and statutes and a law by Moses your servant.
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27You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and
28brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and you
29told them to go in to possess the land that you had sworn to give them.
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"But they and our fathers
30acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments.
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They refused to obey
31and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive,
32gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.
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Even
33when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, 'This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,'
34and had committed great blasphemies,
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you
35in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness.
36The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day,
37nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go.
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38You gave your good Spirit to instruct them
39and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst.
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40Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.
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"And you gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner.
41So they took possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon
42and the land of Og king of Bashan.
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You multiplied their children
43as the stars of heaven, and you brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess.
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44So the descendants went in and possessed the land,
45and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would.
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And they captured
46fortified cities and
47a rich land, and took possession of
48houses full of all good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled
49and became fat and delighted themselves in
50your great goodness.
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51"Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you
52and cast your law behind their back
53and killed your prophets, who
54had warned them in order to turn them back to you,
55and they committed great blasphemies.
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56Therefore you gave them into the hand of their enemies, who made them suffer.
57And in the time of their suffering they cried out to you and you heard them from heaven, and according to your great mercies you gave them
58saviors who saved them from the hand of their enemies.
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59But after they had rest they did evil again before you, and you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they turned and cried to you, you heard from heaven,
60and many times you delivered them according to your mercies.
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61And you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yet
62they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules,
63which if a person does them, he shall live by them,
64and they turned a stubborn shoulder
65and stiffened their neck and would not obey.
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Many years
66you bore with them
67and warned them
68by your Spirit through your prophets.
69Yet they would not give ear.
70Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.
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Nevertheless,
71in your great mercies
72you did not make an end of them or forsake them,
73for you are a gracious and merciful God.
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"Now, therefore, our God,
74the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people,
75since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day.
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76Yet you have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully
77and we have acted wickedly.
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Our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law or paid attention to your commandments and your warnings that you gave them.
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Even in their own kingdom,
78and amid your great goodness that you gave them, and in the large and
79rich land that you set before them,
80they did not serve you or turn from their wicked works.
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Behold,
81we are slaves this day; in the land that you gave to our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts, behold, we are slaves.
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82And its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins. They rule over our bodies and over our livestock as they please, and we are in great distress.