Nehemiah 9:16-25

16“But they, our ancestors, became arrogant. They stiffened their neck and did not obey Your mitzvot.

17They refused to obey and did not remember Your wonders that You did among them. Instead, they became stiff-necked and in their rebellion, appointed a leader in order to return to their bondage. But You are a God of forgiveness, merciful and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in love. Therefore You did not abandon them,

18even when they made a cast image of a calf for themselves and said, ‘This is your god who brought you up from Egypt!’ or when they committed great blasphemies.

19“Yet in Your great compassion You did not abandon them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud by day did not depart from above them, guiding them in the way, nor the pillar of fire by night, illuminating the way they should go.

20You also gave Your good Ruach to teach them. You did not withhold Your manna from their mouth and You gave them water for their thirst.

21For forty years You sustained them in the desert: they lacked nothing, their garments did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

22“You gave them kingdoms and peoples and You allotted them their boundaries of the land. They possessed the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the country of Og king of Bashan.

23You multiplied their descendants like the stars of heaven, and You brought them into the land that You told their ancestors to enter and inherit.

24So the children went in and possessed the land. You subdued before them the Canaanites who were the inhabitants of the land. You delivered them into their hands, along with their kings and the peoples of the land to deal with them as they pleased.

25They captured fortified cities and fertile land. They took possession of houses full of every good thing—hewn cisterns, vineyards, olive groves, and an abundance of fruit trees. They ate and were satisfied, and grew fat. They enjoyed Your great goodness.