Listen to this
Kathan Kawraw being read
by the chaciyd with some Hebrew pronunciation
¶ Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the
children of IsraYAH were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth
upon them.
2 And the seed of IsraYAH separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and
confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.
3 And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of YAHUAH
theirYAHUAH [one] fourth part of the day; and [another] fourth part they
confessed, and worshipped YAHUAH theirYAHUAH.
4 ¶ Then stood up upon the stairs, of the Levites, Jeshua, and Bani, Kadmiel,
Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, [and] Chenani, and cried with a loud voice
unto YAHUAH theirYAHUAH.
5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah,
Shebaniah, [and] Pethahiah, said, Stand up [and] bless YAHUAH yourYAHUAH for
ever and ever: and blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all
blessing and praise.
6 Thou, [even] thou, [art] LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of
heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all [things] that [are] therein,
the seas, and all that [is] therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host
of heaven worshippeth thee.
7 Thou [art] YAHUAH YAHUAH, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out
of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham;
8 And foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest a covenant with him to
give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites,
and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give [it, I say], to his seed, and
hast performed thy words; for thou [art] righteous:
9 And didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry
by the Red sea;
10 And shewedst signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on
all the people of his land: for thou knewest that they dealt proudly against
them. So didst thou get thee a name, as [it is] this day.
11 And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the
midst of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors thou threwest into the
deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters.
12 Moreover thou leddest them in the day by a cloudy pillar; and in the night by
a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein they should go.
13 Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven,
and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments:
14 And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts,
statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant:
15 And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth
water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promisedst them that they
should go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them.
16 But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and
hearkened not to thy commandments,
17 And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst
among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain
to return to their bondage: but thou [art] YAHUAH ready to pardon, gracious and
merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not.
18 Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This [is] thyYAHUAH
that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations;
19 Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the
pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way;
neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein
they should go.
20 Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy
manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst.
21 Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, [so that] they
lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.
22 Moreover thou gavest them kingdoms and nations, and didst divide them into
corners: so they possessed the land of Sihon, and the land of the king of
Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.
23 Their children also multipliedst thou as the stars of heaven, and broughtest
them into the land, concerning which thou hadst promised to their fathers, that
they should go in to possess [it].
24 So the children went in and possessed the land, and thou subduedst before
them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gavest them into their
hands, with their kings, and the people of the land, that they might do with
them as they would.
25 And they took strong cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all
goods, wells digged, vineyards, and oliveyards, and fruit trees in abundance: so
they did eat, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in thy
great goodness.
26 Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy
law behind their backs, and slew thy prophets which testified against them to
turn them to thee, and they wrought great provocations.
27 Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies, who vexed
them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest
[them] from heaven; and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them
saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies.
28 But after they had rest, they did evil again before thee: therefore leftest
thou them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had the dominion over them:
yet when they returned, and cried unto thee, thou heardest [them] from heaven;
and many times didst thou deliver them according to thy mercies;
29 And testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring them again unto thy
law: yet they dealt proudly, and hearkened not unto thy commandments, but sinned
against thy judgments, (which if a man do, he shall live in them;) and withdrew
the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.
30 Yet many years didst thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them by thy
spirit in thy prophets: yet would they not give ear: therefore gavest thou them
into the hand of the people of the lands.
31 Nevertheless for thy great mercies' sake thou didst not utterly consume them,
nor forsake them; for thou [art] a gracious and mercifulYAHUAH.
32 Now therefore, ourYAHUAH, the great, the mighty, and the terribleYAHUAH, who
keepest covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem little before thee,
that hath come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on
our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the
kings of Assyria unto this day.
33 Howbeit thou [art] just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done
right, but we have done wickedly:
34 Neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept thy
law, nor hearkened unto thy commandments and thy testimonies, wherewith thou
didst testify against them.
35 For they have not served thee in their kingdom, and in thy great goodness
that thou gavest them, and in the large and fat land which thou gavest before
them, neither turned they from their wicked works.
36 Behold, we [are] servants this day, and [for] the land that thou gavest unto
our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we [are]
servants in it:
37 And it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us
because of our sins: also they have dominion over our bodies, and over our
cattle, at their pleasure, and we [are] in great distress.
38 And because of all this we make a sure [covenant], and write [it]; and our
princes, Levites, [and] priests, seal [unto it].