Nehemiah 9:1-10

The People Confess Their Sin

1 Now on the twenty-fourth * day of ¹this month the sons of Israel assembled ²with fasting, in sackcloth and with ³dirt upon them.

2 The ⁴descendants of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners *, and stood and ⁵confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.

3 While ⁶they stood in their place, they read from the book of the law of the LORD their God for a fourth of the day; and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the LORD their God.

4 ⁷Now on the Levites' platform stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Chenani, and they cried with a loud voice to the LORD their God.

5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah, said, "Arise, bless the LORD your God forever * and ever! O may Your glorious name be blessed And exalted above all blessing and praise!

6 "⁸You alone are the LORD. ⁹You have made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them. ¹⁰You give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down before You.

7 "You are the LORD God, ¹¹Who chose Abram And brought him out from ¹²Ur of the Chaldees, And ¹³gave him the name Abraham.

8 "You found ¹⁴his heart faithful before You, And made a covenant with him To give him the land of the Canaanite, Of the Hittite and the Amorite, Of the Perizzite, the Jebusite and the Girgashite - To give it to his descendants. And You ¹⁵have fulfilled Your promise, For You are righteous.

9 "¹⁶You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, And ¹⁷heard their cry by the Red * Sea.

10 "Then You performed ¹⁸signs and wonders against Pharaoh, Against all his servants and all the people of his land; For You knew that ¹⁹they acted arrogantly toward them, And ²⁰made a name for Yourself as it is this day.

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Nehemiah 9:1-10 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NEHEMIAH 9

In this chapter we have an account of a fast kept by the Jews, which was observed, as by outward acts of humiliation, so by confession of sin, reading the law, and worshipping the Lord, Ne 9:1-3 and of a long prayer that the Levites made, in which they celebrate the divine perfections, take notice of various instances of the goodness of God to the people of Israel, acknowledge their manifold transgressions, observe the Lord's correction of them for them, in which they own he was righteous, Ne 9:4-38.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 20

1. Nehemiah 8:2
2. Ezra 8:23
3. 1 Samuel 4:12
4. Ezra 10:11; Nehemiah 13:3
5. Proverbs 28:13; Jeremiah 3:13
6. Nehemiah 8:4
7. Nehemiah 8:7
8. Deuteronomy 6:4; 2 Kings 19:15
9. Genesis 1:1
10. Colossians 1:16
11. Genesis 12:1
12. Genesis 11:31
13. Genesis 17:5
14. Gen 15:6, 18-21
15. Joshua 21:43-45
16. Exodus 3:7
17. Ex 14:10-14, 31
18. Ex 7:8-12:32
19. Exodus 5:2
20. Exodus 9:16

Footnotes 3

[a]. Lit "seed"
[b]. Lit "seed"
[c]. Lit "Sea of Reeds"