Nehemiah 1:9

9 but if you return to Me and keep and practice My commandments, then even if your exiles have been banished to the farthest horizon, ^[a] I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for My Name.’ ^[b]

Nehemiah 1:9 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 1:9

But if ye return unto me, and keep my commandments, and do
them
Return by repentance, and, as a proof of the genuineness of it, yield obedience to the commands of God, and continue therein:

though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the
heaven;
that is, the uttermost parts of the earth, the most distant regions; so called, because at the extreme parts of the horizon, according to our apprehension, the heavens and earth touch each other; so that what is the uttermost part of the one is supposed to be of the other:

yet will I gather them from thence and will bring them unto the place
that I have chosen to set my name there;
that is to Jerusalem where the temple was built, and his name was called upon.

Nehemiah 1:9 In-Context

7 We have behaved corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, statutes, and ordinances that You gave Your servant Moses.

8 Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses when You said, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations,

9 but if you return to Me and keep and practice My commandments, then even if your exiles have been banished to the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for My Name.’

10 They are Your servants and Your people. You redeemed them by Your great power and mighty hand.

11 O Lord, may Your ear be attentive to my prayer and to the prayers of Your servants who delight to revere Your name. Give Your servant success this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” (At that time I was the cupbearer to the king.)

Footnotes

• [a]. Or to the extremity of the heavens
• [b]. Deuteronomy 30:1–4