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And Ezra opened the booke in the sight of all the people (for hee was aboue al the people) and when he opened it, all the people stood vp:

And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the Priest the Scribe, and the Leuites that taught the people, said vnto all the people, This day is holy vnto the Lord your God, mourne not, nor weepe: for all the people wept, when they heard the words of the Law.

Then hee sayd vnto them, Goe your way, eat the fat, & drinke the sweet, and send portions vnto them, for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy vnto our Lord: neither be ye sory, for the ioy of the Lord is your strength.

So the Leuites stilled all the people, saying, Holde your peace, for the day is holy, neither be ye grieued.

And all the congregation of them that were come againe out of the captiuitie, made boothes, and sate vnder the boothes: for since the dayes of Ieshua the sonne of Nun, vnto that day, had not the children of Israel done so: and there was very great gladnesse.

Then the Leuites, Ieshua and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodiiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, sayde, Stand vp, and blesse the Lord your God for euer and euer, and blessed bee thy glorious Name, which is exalted aboue all blessing and praise.

And foundest his heart faithfull before thee, & madest a couenant with him, to giue the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Iebusites, and the Girgashites, to giue it, I say, to his seed, and hast performed thy words, for thou art righteous,

And shewedst signes and wonders vpon Pharaoh, and on all his seruants, and on all the people of his land: for thou knewest that they dealt proudlie against them: so didst thou get thee a name, as it is this day.

And gauest them bread from heauen for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rocke, for their thirst, and promisedst them that they should goe in to possesse the land, which thou hadst sworne to giue them.

Thou gauest also thy good spirit, to instruct them, and withheldest not thy Manna from their mouth, and gauest them water for their thirst.

Neuerthelesse, for thy great mercies sake, thou diddest not vtterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and mercifull God.

Howbeit, thou art iust in all that is brought vpon vs, for thou hast done right, but we haue done wickedly:

For they haue not serued thee in their kingdome, and in thy great goodnesse that thou gauest them, and in the large and fat land which thou gauest before them, neither turned they from their wicked workes.

Behold, we are seruants this day; and for the land that thou gauest vnto our fathers, to eat the fruit thereof, and the good thereof, behold, wee are seruants in it.

And that we would not giue our daughters vnto the people of the land, nor take their daughters for our sonnes.

Also we made ordinances for vs, to charge our selues yeerely, with the third part of a shekel, for the seruice of the house of our God,

For the shew-bread, and for the continuall meate-offering, and for the continuall burnt offering, of the Sabbaths, of the new moones, for the set-feastes, and for the holy things, and for the sin-offerings, to make an atonement for Israel, and for all the worke of the house of our God.

And we cast the lots among the priests, the Leuites, and the people, for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God, after the houses of our fathers, at times appointed, yeere by yeere, to burne vpon the altar of the Lord our God, as it is written in the law:

For the children of Israel, and the children of Leui, shall bring the offering of the corne, of the new wine, and the oyle, vnto the chambers, where are the vessels of the sanctuarie, and the priests that minister, and the porters, and the singers, and we will not forsake the house of our God.

For it was the kings commandement concerning them, that a certaine portion should be for the singers, due for euery day.