Nehemiah 9:20

20 And you gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst.

Nehemiah 9:20 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 9:20

Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them
In the knowledge of the laws delivered to them; the spirit of prophecy, according to Ben Melech, and which Aben Ezra interprets of the spirit put upon the seventy elders, ( Numbers 11:17 Numbers 11:25 ) ,

and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth;
all the while they were in the wilderness, until they came to Canaan's land; called the Lord's manna, because prepared by him, and given by him to them; a part or portion and gift from the Lord, as Ben Melech, from whence it had its name, see ( Exodus 16:15 )

and gavest them water for their thirst;
which seems to have respect to the last rock stricken for them, after their many provocations in the wilderness, ( Numbers 20:11 ) .

Nehemiah 9:20 In-Context

18 Even when they made for themselves a molten idol of a calf and said, 'This is your God who brought you out from Egypt,' and committed great blasphemies.

19 But you in your many mercies did not abandon them in the desert. The column of cloud [that was] over them in the day did not cease to leave them on the way, and the column of fire by night [that] gave light to them on the way that they went.

20 And you gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst.

21 Forty years you sustained them in the desert--they were not in need. Their clothing did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

22 And you gave them kingdoms and nations and allotted them a portion. They took into possession the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan.