Nehemiahchapter 9
38 verses · Nehemiah · 5th century BC · History
On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth, with dust on their heads.
Introduction
Nehemiah, History, Nehemiah Overview.
This chapter records the prayer of the whole returned community, spoken by the Levites on a day of fasting. Its first hearers were a people back in their land and still under a foreign king. The prayer tells the story of Israel from creation to the exile, and it tells it to God. Listen for the two threads that run side by side, God's faithfulness and the people's stubbornness, and for the honest words about the present at the end. It is the longest prayer in the Old Testament. It closes with the people ready to bind themselves in writing.
Context
- Who
- A people retelling their own history out loud, with the ending they were living in
- What
- A day of fasting, confession and worship, and a long prayer that retells Israel's history and confesses the nation's sin.
- Where
- Jerusalem, at an assembly of the people in sackcloth with dust on their heads.
- When
- The twenty-fourth day of the seventh month in 445 BC, two days after the Feast of Booths ended.
- Why
- To lead the people to confess their sin and God's mercy, and to prepare them to renew the covenant.
Historical context
The pattern of the day is given precisely: they read in the book of the law for a quarter of the day and confessed and worshipped for another quarter. Roughly three hours of Scripture and three hours of prayer.
Show the rest of the historical context, 2 more paragraphs
The prayer that follows is the longest recorded prayer in the Old Testament and it is almost entirely history. Creation, Abraham, Egypt, the Red Sea, Sinai, the wilderness, the conquest, the judges, the prophets, the exile, told as one story with God's faithfulness and the nation's stubbornness braided together, verse by verse.
Its most striking feature is the honesty about the present. The prayer does not end in triumph. It ends with the line that describes their real situation: "behold, we are servants this day, and for the land that thou gavest unto our fathers… behold, we are servants in it." The land yields its increase to kings God has set over them because of their sins.
Significance
This is what the returned community believed about itself: home, but not free. The wall was up, the temple was working, and they were still a tax district of a foreign empire, and they said so in prayer rather than pretending otherwise.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The refrain running through it is God's patience, "thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness", and the many times He gave them into trouble and then heard them from heaven. The prayer ends by making a sure covenant and writing it down.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter has no place in the synagogue year. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for Nehemiah, and no festival reading.
It is a day of fasting in sackcloth with earth on their heads (Rashi on Nehemiah 9:1:1), and the corpus joins its third verse to Megillah 30b:7 and Taanit 12b:14. Under the fifth verse, the call to bless the Lord from everlasting to everlasting, it carries Berakhot 53b:29 and Berakhot 63a:4. Rashi reads the phrase as the whole span of the world, that God shall be blessed from its beginning until its end (Rashi on Nehemiah 9:5:1).
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. The separation from foreigners in the second verse he reads as the separation from heathen wives told in Ezra 10 (Rashi on Nehemiah 9:2:1). The stairs where the Levites stood he explains from Temple use. "There were steps upon which the Levites would stand when they would recite their song [for the sacrificial service]." (Rashi on Nehemiah 9:4:1).
The long prayer that fills the chapter draws only grammatical notes from him. The verbs of the prayer about Abraham are past tense, and he marks the accent that shows it (Rashi on Nehemiah 9:7:1 and 9:8:1). The Egyptians who acted arrogantly he glosses from Jethro's words in Exodus 18:11 (Rashi on Nehemiah 9:10:1). The land given to the fathers corner by corner he reads as a people kept apart, separate and not mingling with the nations of the lands (Rashi on Nehemiah 9:22:1).
The chapter numbers in the corpus follow the Hebrew text. The corpus's chapter 10 opens on the making of the covenant (Rashi on Nehemiah 10:1:1), and a reader counting in an English Bible may find that verse at the close of this chapter instead.
The corpus carries ten further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Metzudat David on Nehemiah 9:3:1, 9:9:1, 9:11:1, 9:16:1 and 9:23:1, Ibn Ezra on Nehemiah 9:6:1, 9:14:1, 9:20:1 and 9:21:1 and Malbim on Nehemiah 9:18:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the first verse it holds Jerusalem Talmud Avodah Zarah 1:1:11. On the third it holds Megillah 30b:7 and Taanit 12b:14. On the fourth it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yoma 7:2, Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 7:15 and Ein Yaakov, Yoma 7:2.
On the fifth verse the corpus holds Bamidbar Rabbah 11:4, Berakhot 53b:29 and Berakhot 63a:4. On the sixth it holds Bava Batra 25a:6, Bava Batra 25a:8 and Bereshit Rabbah 12:9. On the seventh it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 43:19 and Bamidbar Rabbah 3:2. On the eighth it holds Aggadat Bereshit 16:3 and Aggadat Bereshit 31:2.
On the eleventh verse the corpus holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayetze 33 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 16:27. On the thirteenth it holds Jerusalem Talmud Nedarim 3:9:3 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 21:1. On the fourteenth it holds Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 1:5:3 and Midrash Tehillim 92:1. On the fifteenth it holds Vayikra Rabbah 30:15.
On the sixteenth verse the corpus holds Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 5:1. On the seventeenth it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 16:7 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 15:22. On the eighteenth it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 16:26 and Bamidbar Rabbah 20:19. On the nineteenth it holds Midrash Aggadah, Numbers 2:2:11.
On the twentieth verse the corpus holds Bamidbar Rabbah 19:21 and Midrash Aggadah, Deuteronomy 1:1:4. On the twenty-second it holds Shemot Rabbah 32:4. On the twenty-fourth it holds Aggadat Bereshit 64:1. On the twenty-fifth it holds Vayikra Rabbah 25:4.
On the twenty-sixth verse the corpus holds Otzar Midrashim, Baraita of Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair 1:33. On the thirty-second it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yoma 7:3 and Ein Yaakov, Yoma 7:3. On the thirty-third it holds Midrash Lekach Tov on Lamentations 1:18:1 and Midrash Tehillim 119:12. On the thirty-sixth it holds Otzar Midrashim, Midrash on Psalms, Addendum to Psalm 118 15. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Nehemiah 9:1:1 to 9:24:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Nehemiah 9:3:1, 9:9:1, 9:11:1, 9:16:1 and 9:23:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Nehemiah 9:6:1, 9:14:1, 9:20:1 and 9:21:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on Nehemiah 9:18:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/nehemiah/9.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Sackcloth, earth, and a quarter of the day in the book of the law
Nehemiah 9:1-2
fasting and wearing sackcloth: Two days after the feast of booths, the congregation returns to mourning, "fasting and wearing sackcloth, with dust on their heads". Those of Israelite descent confessed "their sins and the iniquities of their fathers," one confession spanning the generations. The crowd that rejoiced now owns what its history was.
Nehemiah 9:1
“The festival lasted from the 15th day of the 7th month to the first. The 22nd day was a day of solemn observance Neh 8:18. One day seems to have been allowed the people for rest; and then the work of repentance, for which they had shown themselves ready Neh 8:9, was taken in hand, and a general fast was proclaimed.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Nehemiah 9:1
“A solemn fast was now observed for the expression of those penitential and sorrowful feelings which the reading of the law had produced, but which had been suppressed during the celebration of the feast; and the sincerity of their repentance was evinced by the decisive steps taken for the correction of existing abuses in the matter of marriage.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
confessed their sins and the iniquities: Those of Israelite descent confess their own sins with the iniquities of their fathers, as Leviticus 26:40 requires of Israel in exile. Adam Clarke links the separation from foreigners to Ezra's reform of mixed marriages at Ezra 10:3. He suggests the reform had lapsed.
Nehemiah 9:2
“The seed of Israel separated themselves - A reformation of this kind was begun by Ezra, Ezr 10:3; but it appears that either more were found out who had taken strange wives, or else those who had separated from them had taken them again. And stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers. - They acknowledged that they had been sinners against God throughout all their generations; that their fathers had sinned and were punished; and that they, with this example before their eyes, had copied their fathers’ offenses.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Nehemiah 9:2
“But now they separated themselves from the strange children as well as from the strange wives. Those that intend by prayers and covenants to join themselves to God must separate themselves from sin and sinners; for what communion hath light with darkness? It was a day of communion with God.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
for a quarter of the day: The assembly reads "from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day" (9:3). Jamieson, Fausset and Brown place the whole service between the morning and evening sacrifice, six hours given to the word and the answer it required. Hearing comes before answering.
Nehemiah 9:3
“This solemn diet of worship, which probably commenced at the morning sacrifice, was continued for six hours, that is, till the time of the evening sacrifice.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Nehemiah 9:4-5
cried out in a loud voice: Named Levites stand "on the raised platform and cried out in a loud voice to the LORD their God." A second company calls the people to their feet: "Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting" (9:5). The day's confession turns to praise.
Nehemiah 9:4
“Then stood up upon the stairs of the Levites,.... On an ascent; an elevated place where the Levites used to stand when they sang at the time of sacrifice, and where they might be seen and heard by the people: Jeshua and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani; who seem to be all Levites, see Neh 8:7, and cried with a loud voice unto the Lord their God; praying with great fervency, and making bitter lamentation for the sins of the people and their own.”
2 more voices on this verse
Nehemiah 9:4
“The Septuagint and the Vulgate remove the comma after “stairs.” By the “stairs (or scaffold) of the Levites” is to be understood as an elevated platform from which they could the better address and lead the people (compare Neh 8:4).”
Nehemiah 9:4
“The summary of their prayers we have here upon record; whether drawn up before, as a directory to the Levites what to enlarge on, or recollected after, as the heads of what they had in prayer enlarged upon, is uncertain. Much more no doubt was said than is here recorded, else confessing and worshipping God would not have taken up a fourth part of the day, much less two-fourths.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The call to stand marks a change of posture, and Albert Barnes notes the people had knelt for confession at verse 3. The words from everlasting to everlasting echo the doxology that closes Psalm 106:48. That psalm also confesses the fathers' sins, 106:6.
Nehemiah 9:5
“Then the Levites . . . said, Stand up and bless the Lord your God--If this prayer was uttered by all these Levites in common, it must have been prepared and adopted beforehand, perhaps, by Ezra; but it may only embody the substance of the confession and thanksgiving.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Nehemiah 9:5
“The congregation is called upon to signify their concurrence herewith by standing up; and so the minister directs himself to God, Blessed be thy glorious name. As the only living and true God: Thou art Jehovah alone, self-existent and independent; there is no God besides thee. As the Creator of all things: Thou hast made heaven, earth, and seas, and all that is in them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Nehemiah 9:5
“Stand up - The people had knelt to confess and to worship God Neh 9:3. They were now to take the proper attitude for praise. Compare throughout the margin reference.”
Thou art the LORD alone, who made heaven and its host
You alone are the LORD: The prayer opens where Genesis opens: "You created the heavens, the highest heavens with all their host" (9:6). It adds "You give life to all things," so the maker of the world also keeps it. Adoration of God as creator comes before any word of confession.
Nehemiah 9:6
“Thou preservest them all - ואתה מחיה את כלם vettah mechaiyeh eth cullam, and thou givest life to them all: and the host of the heavens, לך משתחוים lecha mishtachavim, prostrate themselves unto thee. How near is this to the opinion of Kepler, that all the heavenly host are instinct with life, and navigate the great expanse on pinions adjusted to their situation in their respective orbits! But to preserve in life, or in being, is a very good meaning in the original, which does not necessarily imply vitality.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Nehemiah 9:7-8
Ur of the Chaldeans: The prayer moves from creation to election: "the God who chose Abram, who brought him out of Ur" (9:7). Verse 8 adds the covenant's ground, "You found his heart faithful." It closes on "You have kept Your promise, because You are righteous," the note the prayer keeps returning to.
Nehemiah 9:7
“God's favour to him was distinguishing: "Thou didst choose him." His grace in him was powerful to bring him out of Ur of the Chaldees, and, in giving him the name of Abraham, he put honour upon him as his own and assured him that he should be the father of many nations. Look unto Abraham your father ( Isa. li. 2 ) and see free grace glorified in him.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
You found his heart faithful before You: Genesis 15 holds both halves of the verse: Abram believes at 15:6, and the covenant naming the land's peoples follows at 15:18-21. Genesis lists ten peoples, and the prayer names six. Matthew Henry reads God's faithfulness as answering the faithful heart He found.
Nehemiah 9:8
“And this covenant was sure, for God found Abraham's heart faithful before God, and found it so because he made it so (for faith is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God), and therefore performed his words; for with the upright he will show himself upright, and wherever he finds a faithful heart he will be found a faithful God.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Nehemiah 9:9-11
at the Red Sea: Three verses retell the exodus in the order Exodus gives it: the cry heard "at the Red Sea" and the "signs and wonders against Pharaoh". Gill ties each clause to its source, the cry of Exodus 14:10, the pride of Exodus 18:11, the crossing of Exodus 14:21.
Nehemiah 9:9
“And didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt,.... The hard bondage in which their lives were made bitter; and was not a mere spectator of it, but looked upon them in it with pity and compassion, and sent them a deliverer, Exo 2:23 and heardest their cry by the Red sea; which was before them, and the rocks on both sides of them, and the host of Pharaoh behind, pressing upon them, when he heard them, and wrought salvation for them, Exo 14:10.”
signs and wonders against Pharaoh: The signs and wonders are the plagues of Exodus 7 to 12, which struck the officials and the land as well as the king. Exodus 9:16 gives their purpose, that the Lord's name be proclaimed in all the earth. The prayer claims that name still endures.
Nehemiah 9:10
“And shewedst signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all the people of his land,.... By inflicting the ten plagues upon them: for thou knowest that they dealt proudly against them; behaved haughtily to them, and despised them, see Exo 18:11 so didst thou get thee a name, as it is this day; displayed his power on Pharaoh, and his goodness to Israel, the fame of which reached all over the world, and continued to that day, see Exo 9:16.”
You divided the sea before them: The wording draws on the song of Exodus 15, where the horse and rider are thrown into the sea at 15:1. The pursuers sink like lead in the mighty waters at 15:10. The prayer borrows the song Israel sang on the far shore.
Nehemiah 9:11
“And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land,.... That is, the Israelites, see Exo 14:21, and their persecutors thou threwest into the deeps; with great ease, and with indignation, meaning the Egyptians, that pursued hotly after them, and were thrown into the sea: as a stone into the mighty waters; where they sunk and perished, see Exo 15:4.”
Nehemiah 9:12-13
with a pillar of cloud by day: By day "a pillar of cloud" and by night "a pillar of fire" light the way, guidance arriving before any law does. God "came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven." The giving of law follows the giving of guidance, and the two stand in one history.
Nehemiah 9:12
“Moreover, thou leddest them in the day by a cloudy pillar,.... The Israelites, to shelter them from the heat of the sun in a dry and barren wilderness: and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein they should go; through a trackless desert, see Exo 13:21.”
1 more voice on this verse
Nehemiah 9:12
“By a cloudy pillar - See the notes on the parallel passages, both here and in the other verses.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
You came down on Mount Sinai: Two accounts stand behind the verse: the Lord descends to the top of Sinai at Exodus 19:20 and speaks from heaven at Exodus 20:22. Matthew Henry links the four terms for the law to Deuteronomy 4:8, which asks what nation has statutes so righteous. The prayer assumes the answer.
Nehemiah 9:13
“The law given was very good. No nation under the sun had such right judgments, true laws, and good statutes, Deut. iv. The moral and judicial precepts were true and right, founded upon natural equity and the eternal reasons of good and evil; and even the ceremonial institutions were good, tokens of God's goodness to them and types of gospel grace.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Nehemiah 9:14-15
You revealed to them Your holy Sabbath: h," a rest given to this people through "Your servant Moses". Their hunger meets "bread from heaven" while the command to "possess the land which You had sworn to give them" answers their hope. Provision and promise are given in the same breath.
Nehemiah 9:14
“And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath,.... Which was not made known to others, and was peculiar to the Jewish nation, and a privilege granted to them, to have rest corporeal and spiritual, typical of the rest in Christ: and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant; moral, ceremonial, and judicial, such as other nations had not, Deu 4:8.”
1 more voice on this verse
Nehemiah 9:14
“Madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath - They appear to have forgotten this first of all the commandments of God, during their sojourning in Egypt.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
You gave them bread from heaven: Bread from heaven is the manna promised at Exodus 16:4, and water from the rock recalls Horeb at Exodus 17:6. The command to go in and possess repeats Deuteronomy 1:8, where the oath to the fathers is named. Provision came before possession.
Nehemiah 9:15
“And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger,.... To satisfy that, meaning the manna, Exo 16:3 and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock, for their thirst; to quench it; this was done both quickly after they came out of the land of Egypt, and a little before their entrance into the land of Canaan, see Exo 17:6 and promisedst them that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them; which oath was made to them and to their fathers also, see Num 14:30.”
They dealt proudly, but Thou art a God ready to pardon
Nehemiah 9:16-17
became arrogant and stiff-necked: Then comes the sentence the prayer turns on: "You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in loving devotion" (9:17). It is the Lord's own self-description at Sinai in Exodus 34, prayed back to Him after a long record of failure.
Nehemiah 9:16
“But they and our fathers dealt proudly,.... Behaved in a haughty manner towards God, their kind benefactor: and hardened their necks; refused to take the yoke of his law, as refractory oxen, that withdraw their necks from the yoke: and hearkened not to thy commandments; to do them, though they promised they would, Exo 24:7.”
appointed a leader to return them: The appointed leader comes from Numbers 14:4, where the people proposed choosing a leader to take them back to Egypt. Albert Barnes notes that the Septuagint and several manuscripts read in Egypt, and that the prayer treats as done what Numbers records as proposed. The Berean text follows that reading.
Nehemiah 9:17
“In their rebellion - The Septuagint and several maunscripts have “in Egypt” (the words in the original differing by one letter only), and translate - “And appointed a captain to return to their bondage in Egypt.” Compare the margin reference. The appointment of a leader is regarded here as made, whereas we are only told in the Book of Numbers that it was proposed.”
1 more voice on this verse
Nehemiah 9:17
“WHEN A MAN'S CONSCIENCE is so awakened to the existence of sin that he cannot perceive any plea for mercy within himself, it is his wisdom to look for a plea in the nature and character of God. Now, brethren, if we search ourselves through and through, we cannot find anything in our fallen nature which can recommend us to the Most High. If we think that we have a claim upon God's goodness, we are in darkness, and deceive ourselves.”
an image of a calf: The prayer names the sin without softening it: "they cast for themselves an image of a calf." Gill reads the calf as a copy of the Egyptian Apis. The people said, "This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt," crediting their own handiwork with the Lord's act.
Nehemiah 9:18
“Yea, when they had made them a molten calf,.... In imitation of the Apis, or ox of the Egyptians: and said, this is thy god that brought thee out of Egypt; or the image of thy god, as the Arabic version, see Exo 32:4, and had wrought great provocations; of all which nothing was greater than idolatry.”
Nehemiah 9:19-20
did not forsake them in the wilderness: Even after the calf the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night keep leading. Verse 20 adds more unbroken gifts: "You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold Your manna from their mouths, and You gave them water for their thirst".
Nehemiah 9:19
“The pillar of the cloud departed not from them - מעליהם mealeyhem, “from over them.” I have already had occasion to observe that this miraculous cloud, the symbol of the Divine presence, assumed three different positions while accompanying the Israelitish camp: 1. As a cloud in the form of a pillar, it went before them when they journey, to point out their way in the wilderness. 2. As a pillar of fire, it continued with them during the night, to give them light, and be a rallying point for the whole camp in the night season.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them: Adam Clarke reads the pillar of verse 19 as the sign of God's presence, and verse 20 adds the Spirit's instruction. Numbers 11:25 records the Spirit resting on the seventy elders in the wilderness. Exodus 16:35 dates the manna to all forty years.
Nehemiah 9:20
“Besides the law given on Mount Sinai, the five books of Moses, which he wrote as he was moved by the Holy Ghost, were constant instructions to them, particularly the book of Deuteronomy, in which God's Spirit by Moses instructed them fully. Bezaleel was filled with the Spirit of God ( Exod. xxxi. 3 ), so was Joshua ( Num. xxvii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Their clothes did not wear out: "For forty years You sustained them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing," survival across a generation in land that could not feed them. The forty years are the sentence of Numbers 14 served in full, and even the sentence is carried on unbroken provision.
Nehemiah 9:21
“Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing,.... As not for food, so neither for raiment, as follows: their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not; of which see Deu 8:4.”
1 more voice on this verse
Nehemiah 9:21
“Their clothes waxed not old - See the note on Deu 8:4.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Nehemiah 9:22-25
allotted to them every corner of the land: Four verses carry the conquest at speed: "the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and of Og king of Bashan". They took "fortified cities and fertile land," and "delighted in Your great goodness," an inheritance received as a gift. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the corners as tribal allotments.
Nehemiah 9:22
“The land of Og king of Bashan - It is most evident that Sihon was king of Heshbon. How then can it be said that they possessed the land of Sihon, and the land of the king of Heshbon? The words the land of the king of Heshbon are wanting in two of De Rossi’s MSS. In another MS. the words and the land of are wanting; so that the clause is read, They possessed the land of Sihon, king of Heshbon.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Nehemiah 9:22
“Moreover thou gavest them kingdoms and nations--that is, put them in possession of a rich country, of an extensive territory, which had been once occupied by a variety of princes and people. and didst divide them into corners--that is, into tribes.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
You multiplied their descendants like the stars: Moses had already told Israel at Deuteronomy 1:10 that they were as numerous as the stars in the sky. John Gill counts upwards of 600,000 men leaving Egypt, Exodus 12:37, and names Joshua as the instrument of the entry. The work, he adds, was God's.
Nehemiah 9:23
“Their children also multipliedst thou as the stars of heaven,.... Fulfilling the promise made to Abraham, Gen 15:5 their number when they came out of Egypt, and just before they entered into the land of Canaan, being upwards of 600,000 men, besides women and children, Exo 12:37 and broughtest them into the land, concerning which thou hadst promised to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it; the land of Canaan, promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their seed, into which the Lord brought them by Joshua; he was the instrument, but the thing was of God.”
You subdued before them the Canaanites: Deuteronomy 9:3 had promised that the Lord would subdue the Canaanites before Israel, and the prayer repeats its word subdue. Joshua 21:43-44 records the promise kept, the land given and rest on every side. The prayer credits God with the conquest.
houses full of all goods: Deuteronomy 6:10-11 had foretold these gifts: great cities, houses full of good things, wells, vineyards and olive groves Israel had never worked for. Albert Barnes reads grew fat as grew proud, a phrase he finds again at Jeremiah 5:28. Deuteronomy 32:15 warned of exactly this.
Rebellion, ruin, and rescue, over and over again
they flung Your law behind their backs: "But they were disobedient and rebelled against You; they flung Your law behind their backs," and the verbs turn from gift to refusal. The verse names the cost to those sent to call them back: "They killed Your prophets, who had admonished them to return to You" (9:26).
Nehemiah 9:26
“Slew thy prophets - Compare 1Ki 18:4; 1Ki 19:10; 2Ch 24:21. Jewish tradition further affirms that more than one of the great prophets (e. g., Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel) were martyred by their countrymen.”
Nehemiah 9:27-28
So You delivered them into the hands of enemies: s" begins the rhythm the book of Judges tells in full. Verse 28 repeats the cycle so each deliverance becomes the ground of the next relapse. Gill names the deliverers of Judges, Othniel, Ehud, Barak and Gideon.
Nehemiah 9:27
“Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies, who vexed them,.... As the kings of Mesopotamia, Moab, Canaan, and others: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee; as they usually did, Jdg 3:9, thou heardest them from heaven; and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviours, who saved them out of the hands of their enemies; such were judges, Othniel, Ehud, Barak, Gideon, &c. and this was, done for them, not on account of their merits, but the abundant unmerited mercy of the Lord towards them.”
as soon as they had rest: The pattern is the one Judges 3:11-12 sets out: the land had rest forty years under Othniel, and then Israel again did evil. Judges 2:19 adds that each generation grew more corrupt after its judge died. The prayer credits each rescue to God's compassion.
Nehemiah 9:28
“That which was designed in all the testimonies which the prophets bore against them was to bring them again to God's law, to lay their necks under its yoke, and walk by its rule. The end of our ministry is to bring people to God by bringing them to his law, not to bring them to ourselves by bringing them under any law of ours.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Nehemiah 9:29-31
You admonished them to turn back to Your law: w," and recovery for the nation is the purpose behind every warning. Adam Clarke reckons the years of patience mainly against the ten tribes, about two hundred and fifty years of warning before the Assyrian captivity.
Nehemiah 9:29
“This abridgment of the covenant, Do this and live, is taken from Ezek. xx. 13 , and is quoted, Gal. iii. 12 , to prove that the law is not of faith; it was not them as it is now, Believe and live, yet they gave a withdrawing shoulder, so it is in the margin.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Your Spirit admonished them through Your prophets: Zechariah 7:12 describes the earlier prophets the same way, speaking words the Lord sent by His Spirit. Adam Clarke finds in the phrase the true account of inspiration, the Spirit speaking in the prophet. 2 Kings 17:13 records every prophet's warning to Israel and Judah.
Nehemiah 9:30
“Many years didst thou forbear - It is supposed that Nehemiah refers here principally to the ten tribes. And many years did God bear with them; not less than two hundred and fifty-four years from their separation from the house of David, till their captivity and utter dispersion under Shalmaneser; during the whole of which time God invariably warned them by his prophets; or, as it is here said, by thy Spirit in thy prophets, which gives us the true notion of Divine inspiration.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
You did not put an end to them: Jeremiah 30:11 promised this limit, discipline without complete destruction, and Lamentations 3:22 confesses the same great compassion. John Gill finds the proof in the exiles who were spared, found favour with their captors, and returned. The gracious and compassionate God kept them.
Nehemiah 9:31
“Nevertheless, for thy great mercies' sake, For the displaying of that, and the glorifying of it, which is so large and exceeding abundant: thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; some were left in the land, and those that were carried captive found favour in the eyes of those that carried them away, and were suffered to live, and many of them now had returned to their own land: for thou art a gracious and merciful God; of which they had abundant proof and evidence.”
Behold, we are servants this day, and we make a sure covenant
the great and mighty and awesome God: "So now, our God, the great and mighty and awesome God who keeps His gracious covenant" turns the prayer to petition. It asks God not to "view lightly all the hardship" that has come on them. The trouble spans every rank, "our kings and leaders, our priests and prophets."
Nehemiah 9:32
“In this request they have an eye to God as one that is to be feared (for he is the great, the mighty, and the terrible, God ), and as one that is to be trusted, for he is our God in covenant, and a God that keeps covenant and mercy.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Nehemiah 9:32
“On our kings, on our princes - I believe Nehemiah in this place mentions the whole of civil society in its officers as they stand related to each other in dignity: - 1. Kings, as supreme. 2. Princes. 3. Priests. 4. Prophets. 5. The Fathers, heads or chiefs of tribes and families. 6. The Common People. Those who disturb this natural order (for it subsists even in Britain) are enemies to the peace of the whole, whatever they may pretend to the contrary.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Nehemiah 9:32
“Mercy - He adds mercy, because the covenant in itself was not a sufficient ground of hope, because they had so basely broken it. God was discharged from keeping it, and therefore they fly to God's free and rich mercy for relief.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Nehemiah 9:33-35
You are just in all that has befallen us: s, because You have acted faithfully, while we have acted wickedly" (9:33). Verse 34 spreads the failure across every office, kings, leaders, priests and fathers alike. God kept His word while every rank broke the law.
did not obey Your law: The list repeats verse 32 with one change: the prophets drop out. Adam Clarke explains the omission: the prophets stayed faithful and testified against the rest, often at the risk of their lives. Verse 26 has already named prophets killed for that testimony.
Nehemiah 9:34
“Neither have our kings - In this verse he acknowledges that the kings, princes, priests, and fathers, had broken the law: but the prophets are left out; for they continued faithful to God, testifying by his Spirit against the crimes of all; and this even at the risk of their lives.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the spacious and fertile land: The spacious land recalls the promise at the burning bush, Exodus 3:8, a good and spacious land. Adam Clarke prefers the reading Your kingdom, found in two Hebrew manuscripts and in the Septuagint, Syriac and Arabic. On that reading the kingdom was God's.
Nehemiah 9:35
“For they have not served thee in their kingdom - Instead of במלכותם bemalcutham, “in Their kingdom,” במלכותך bemalcuthecha, in Thy kingdom,” is the reading of two of Kennicott’s MSS.; as also of the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic. This is most likely to be the true reading.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Nehemiah 9:36-37
here we are today as slaves: "So here we are today as slaves in the land You gave our fathers" (9:36). The recital of creation, Abraham, Egypt and conquest arrives at a people back in their land and still not free in it. The prayer ends: "We are in great distress."
Nehemiah 9:36
“Behold, we are servants - They had no king of their own: and were under the government of the kings of Persia, to whom they paid a regular tribute.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Its abundant harvest goes to the kings: Deuteronomy 28:33 had warned that a foreign people would eat the harvest of the land and all its labour. Nehemiah 5:4 shows the cost in practice, families borrowing to pay the king's tax on their fields and vineyards. Clarke adds forced labour at the kings' pleasure.
Nehemiah 9:37
“It yieldeth much increase unto the kings - Good and fruitful as the land is, yet it profits us little; as the chief profits on all things go to the kings of Persia. Over our bodies - Exacting personal and feudal services from us, and from our cattle; and this not by any fixed rate, or rule, of so much rent, so much labor, or boons; but at their pleasure; so that we can neither call our persons, our time, our land, nor our cattle, our own: therefore we are in great distress.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
we make a binding agreement: "In view of all this, we make a binding agreement, putting it in writing," so a day of confession ends in a legal act. Leaders, Levites and priests put their names to it. The chapter that opened in fasting and sackcloth closes with ink and seals.
Nehemiah 9:38
“Our princes, Levites, and priests, seal unto it - Persuaded that we have brought all the miseries upon ourselves by our transgressions, feeling much and fearing more, we make a covenant with thee to devote ourselves to thy service; to do with us as thou pleasest. From this sealing we learn that at this time the government of the Jews was a mixed aristocracy; composed of the nobles for the civil department, and the priests and Levites for the ecclesiastical.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The patterns in this chapter
How this chapter is built
1 more paragraph on the patterns
Verses 1 to 5 set the scene of the day of fasting. Verses 6 to 31 retell Israel's history in order. They move from creation in verse 6 and Abraham in verses 7 and 8, through Egypt, Sinai and the wilderness in verses 9 to 21, to the land in verses 22 to 25. Verses 26 to 31 tell the cycle of rebellion, oppression and rescue in the land. Verses 32 to 37 turn to the present distress, and verse 38 leads into the written covenant of chapter 10. The same pattern of sin, judgment and mercy runs through the Book of Judges.
Keep studying
Studies7
Words12
Subjects1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Alfred Edersheim, Bible History: Old Testament; Berean Standard Bible; Charles Spurgeon, A God Ready to Pardon (Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1272); Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and W. F. Adeney, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther (Expositor's Bible).