Nehemiah 9:29-38

29 And ¹admonished them in order to turn them back to Your law. Yet ²they acted arrogantly and did not listen to Your commandments but sinned against Your ordinances, By ³which if a man observes them he shall live. And they ⁴turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck, and would not listen.

30 "⁵However, You bore with them for many years, And ⁶admonished them by ⁷Your Spirit through Your prophets, Yet they would not give ear. Therefore You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.

31 "Nevertheless, in Your great compassion You ⁸did not make an end of them or forsake them, For You are ⁹a gracious and compassionate God.

32 "Now therefore, our God, ¹⁰the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and lovingkindness, Do not let all the hardship seem insignificant before You, Which has come upon us, our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers and on all Your people, ¹¹From the days of the kings of Assyria to this day.

33 "However, ¹²You are just in all that has come upon us; For You have dealt faithfully, but we have acted wickedly.

34 "For our kings, our leaders, our priests and our fathers have not kept Your law Or paid attention to Your commandments and Your admonitions with which You have admonished them.

35 "But ¹³they, in their own kingdom, ¹⁴With Your great goodness which You gave them, With the broad and rich land which You set before them, Did not serve You or turn from their evil deeds.

36 "Behold, ¹⁵we are slaves today, And as to the land which You gave to our fathers to eat of its fruit and its bounty, Behold, we are slaves in it.

37 "¹⁶Its abundant produce is for the kings Whom You have set over us because of our sins; They also rule over our bodies And over our cattle as they please, So we are in great distress.

A Covenant Results

38 "Now because of all this ¹⁷We are making an agreement in writing; And on the ¹⁸sealed document are the names of our leaders, our Levites and our priests."

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Nehemiah 9:29-38 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 18

1. Nehemiah 9:26, 30
2. Nehemiah 9:10, 16
3. Leviticus 18:5
4. Zechariah 7:11
5. Psalms 95:10; Acts 13:18
6. 2 Kings 17:13-18; 2 Chronicles 36:15, 16; Nehemiah 9:26, 29
7. Nehemiah 9:20
8. Jeremiah 4:27
9. Nehemiah 9:17
10. Nehemiah 1:5
11. 2 Kings 15:19, 29; 2 Kings 17:3-6; Ezra 4:2, 10
12. Genesis 18:25; Jeremiah 12:1
13. Deuteronomy 28:47
14. Nehemiah 9:25
15. Deuteronomy 28:48
16. Deuteronomy 28:33
17. Nehemiah 10:29
18. Nehemiah 10:1

Footnotes 4

[a]. Lit "gave"
[b]. Lit "testimonies"
[c]. Or "witnessed"
[d]. Ch 10:1 in Heb