Nehemiah 9:18

18 and when they had made to them a molten calf, as by strife, and had said, This is thy God, Israel, that led thee out of Egypt, and they did great blasphemies to thy name. (even when they made for themselves a metal idol, yea, a calf, and said, Israel, this is thy god, that led thee out of Egypt, and they did great blasphemies to thy name.)

Nehemiah 9:18 Meaning and Commentary

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 ( Exodus 32:4 ) ,

and had wrought great provocations;
of all which nothing was greater than idolatry.

Nehemiah 9:18 In-Context

16 But they and our fathers did proudly, and made hard their nolls, and heard not thy commandments. (But they, our forefathers, did proudly, and were stiff-necked, or stubborn, and would not obey thy commandments.)

17 And they would not hear; and they had not mind of thy marvels, which thou haddest done to them; and they made hard their nolls; and they gave the head, that they were all-turned to their servage as by strife; but thou art God (who is) helpful, meek, and merciful, abiding long, either patient, and of much merciful doing, and forsookest not them; (Yea, they would not obey; and they did not remember thy marvels, which thou didest for them; and they stiffened their necks, and were stubborn; and they rebelled, and ordained a leader to take them back to their servitude, or their slavery; but thou art a helpful God, meek, and merciful, long abiding, or patient, and of great mercy, and thou didest not abandon them;)

18 and when they had made to them a molten calf, as by strife, and had said, This is thy God, Israel, that led thee out of Egypt, and they did great blasphemies to thy name. (even when they made for themselves a metal idol, yea, a calf, and said, Israel, this is thy god, that led thee out of Egypt, and they did great blasphemies to thy name.)

19 But thou, Lord, in thy many mercies leftest, or forsookest, not them in (the) desert; for a pillar of cloud went not away from them by the day, that it should lead them into the way whither they were to go; and the pillar of fire went not away from them by night, that it should show to them the way, by which they should enter. (Yet thou, Lord, in thy many mercies, did not leave, or forsake, them in the desert; for the pillar of cloud went not away from them in the day, so that it could lead them in the way that they should to go; and the pillar of fire went not away from them in the night, so that it could also show them the way that they should go.)

20 And thou gavest to them thy good Spirit, that taught them; and thou forbadest not thine angel's meat, (or thy manna,) from their mouth(s), and thou gavest to them water in their thirst (and thou gavest them water for their thirst).