Nehemiah 9:1-5

National Confession of Sin

1 On the twenty-fourth day of this month the Israelites assembled; they were fasting, [wearing] sackcloth, [and had put] dust on their heads.

2 Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the guilt^[a] of their fathers.

3 While they stood in their places, they read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for a fourth of the day and [spent] another fourth of the day in confession and worship of the Lord their God.

4 Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani stood on the raised platform [built] for the Levites and cried out loudly to the Lord their God.

5 Then the Levites-Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah-said: Stand up. Bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting.^[b] Praise Your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise.

Nehemiah 9:1-5 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.

Footnotes

• [a] liability for punishment
• [b] 1 Ch 16:36; Ps 41:13; 106:48