Nehemiah 9:20-30

20 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.
21 For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen.
22 “You gave them kingdoms and nations, allotting to them even the remotest frontiers. They took over the country of Sihon[a] king of Heshbon and the country of Og king of Bashan.
23 You made their children as numerous as the stars in the sky, and you brought them into the land that you told their parents to enter and possess.
24 Their children went in and took possession of the land. You subdued before them the Canaanites, who lived in the land; you gave the Canaanites into their hands, along with their kings and the peoples of the land, to deal with them as they pleased.
25 They captured fortified cities and fertile land; they took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees in abundance. They ate to the full and were well-nourished; they reveled in your great goodness.
26 “But they were disobedient and rebelled against you; they turned their backs on your law. They killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you; they committed awful blasphemies.
27 So you delivered them into the hands of their enemies, who oppressed them. But when they were oppressed they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies.
28 “But as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in your sight. Then you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled over them. And when they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in your compassion you delivered them time after time.
29 “You warned them in order to turn them back to your law, but they became arrogant and disobeyed your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, of which you said, ‘The person who obeys them will live by them.’ Stubbornly they turned their backs on you, became stiff-necked and refused to listen.
30 For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you warned them through your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you gave them into the hands of the neighboring peoples.

Nehemiah 9:20-30 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.

Cross References 34

  • 1. Numbers 9:17; Numbers 11:17; Isaiah 63:11,14; Haggai 2:5; Zechariah 4:6
  • 2. Psalms 23:3; Psalms 143:10
  • 3. S Exodus 16:15
  • 4. Exodus 17:6
  • 5. S Exodus 16:35
  • 6. S Deuteronomy 2:7
  • 7. S Deuteronomy 8:4
  • 8. S Numbers 21:21
  • 9. S Numbers 21:33; Dt 2:26-3:11
  • 10. S Genesis 12:2; S Leviticus 26:9; S Numbers 10:36
  • 11. S Joshua 11:23
  • 12. S Judges 4:23; S 2 Chronicles 14:13
  • 13. S Deuteronomy 11:11
  • 14. S Exodus 18:9
  • 15. Deuteronomy 6:10-12
  • 16. Numbers 13:27; Deuteronomy 8:8-11; Deuteronomy 32:12-15; Psalms 23:6; Psalms 25:7; Psalms 69:16
  • 17. S 1 Kings 14:9; Jeremiah 44:10
  • 18. S Joshua 7:25
  • 19. Jeremiah 2:30; Jeremiah 26:8; Matthew 21:35-36; Matthew 23:29-36; Acts 7:52
  • 20. S Judges 2:12-13
  • 21. S Numbers 25:17; S Judges 2:14
  • 22. Psalms 51:1; Psalms 103:8; Psalms 106:45; Psalms 119:156
  • 23. S Judges 3:9
  • 24. S Exodus 32:22; S Judges 2:17
  • 25. S 2 Samuel 24:14
  • 26. Psalms 22:4; Psalms 106:43; Psalms 136:24
  • 27. S Judges 6:8
  • 28. ver 16-17; Psalms 5:5; Isaiah 2:11; Jeremiah 43:2
  • 29. S Deuteronomy 30:16
  • 30. S 1 Samuel 8:3
  • 31. Jeremiah 19:15
  • 32. Zechariah 7:11-12
  • 33. 2 Kings 17:13-18; S 2 Chronicles 36:16
  • 34. Jeremiah 16:11; Zechariah 7:12

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. One Hebrew manuscript and Septuagint; most Hebrew manuscripts "Sihon, that is, the country of the"
Scripture quoted by permission.  Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.  NIV®.  Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica.  All rights reserved worldwide.