CHAPTER 9

¹And when all of these things were finished, the nobles approached me, saying, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not kept apart from the peoples of the lands whose abominations are like the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, the Ammonite, the Moabite, the Egyptian, and the Amorite. ²For from their daughters they have taken as wives for themselves and for their sons, and the holy seed has mingled with the peoples of the lands, and the hand of the nobles and the officers was first in this betrayal.” ³And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my cloak and I tore out hair from my head and my beard and I sat desolate. ⁴And all who trembled for the words of the God of Israel over all the betrayal of the exiles gathered by me while I was sitting desolate till the evening grain offering. ⁵And at the time of the evening grain offering I arose from my fast, and I was in my torn garment and my cloak, and I kneeled and spread my palms to the LORD my God. ⁶And I said, “My God, I am too ashamed and mortified to lift my face to you, my God, for our crimes have multiplied over our heads and our guilt is great up to the heavens. ⁷From the days of our fathers we have been in great guilt to this day, and through our crimes we, our kings, our priests have been given into the hands of the kings of the lands, to the sword and to captivity mand to pillage and to shame as on this day. ⁸And now, in a mere moment, there has been grace from the LORD our God to leave us survivors and to give us anchorage in His holy place and to give light to our eyes, O our God, and to grant us a bit of livelihood in our labor. ⁹Though we be slaves, in our slaving we have not forsaken our God, and He has inclined kindness for us before the kings of Persia to grant us a livelihood to raise up the house of our God and to build up its ruins and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem. ¹⁰And now, what can we say, O our God, after we have forsaken Your commands ¹¹that You commanded through Your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land that you have come to take hold of is a land of defilement through the defilement of the peoples of the lands with their abominations, as they filled it from end to end with their uncleanness’? ¹²And now, do not give your daughters to their sons nor marry their sons, and never seek their well-being nor their good, so that you may be strong and enjoy the land’s bounty and bequeath it to your children forever. ¹³And after all that has befallen us through our evil deeds and through our great guilt, You, O our God, have gauged our crime less than it was and have granted us this surviving group. ¹⁴Shall we again thwart your commands to enter into marriage with the peoples doing these abominations? Would You not be incensed against us so as to bring an utter end to us without remnant or survivor? ¹⁵LORD God of Israel, You are righteous, for we have remained a surviving group as on this day. Here we are before You in our guilt, for one cannot stand before You because of this.”