Nehemiah 9:16

16 But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks and hearkened not to thy commandments.

Nehemiah 9:16 Meaning and Commentary

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, ( Exodus 24:7 ) .

Nehemiah 9:16 In-Context

14 Thou madest known to them thy holy sabbath, and didst prescribe to them commandments, and ceremonies, and the law by the hand of Moses thy servant.

15 And thou gavest them bread from heaven in their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock in their thirst, and thou saidst to them that they should go in, and possess the land, upon which thou hadst lifted up thy hand to give it them.

16 But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks and hearkened not to thy commandments.

17 And they would not hear, and they remembered not thy wonders which thou hadst done for them. And they hardened their necks, and gave the head to return to their bondage, as it were by contention. But thou, a forgiving God, gracious, and merciful, longsuffering, and full of compassion, didst not forsake them.

18 Yea when they had made also to themselves a molten calf, and had said: This is thy God, that brought thee out of Egypt: and had committed great blasphemies: