Nehemiah 9:13-23

13 "Then ¹You came down on Mount Sinai, And ²spoke with them from heaven; You gave them ³just ordinances and true laws, Good statutes and commandments.

14 "So You made known to them ⁴Your holy sabbath, And laid down for them commandments, statutes and law, Through Your servant Moses.

15 "You ⁵provided bread from heaven for them for their hunger, You ⁶brought forth water from a rock for them for their thirst, And You ⁷told them to enter in order to possess The land which You swore * to give them.

16 "But they, our fathers, ⁸acted arrogantly; They ⁹became * stubborn * and would not listen to Your commandments.

17 "They refused to listen, And ¹⁰did not remember Your wondrous deeds which You had performed among them; So they became * stubborn * and ¹¹appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But You are a God ¹²of forgiveness, Gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness; And You did not forsake them.

18 "Even when they ¹³made for themselves A calf of molten metal And said, 'This is your God Who brought you up from Egypt,' And committed great blasphemies,

19 ¹⁴You, in Your great compassion, Did not forsake them in the wilderness; ¹⁵The pillar of cloud did not leave * * them by day, To guide them on their way, Nor the pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way in which they were to go.

20 "¹⁶You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them, Your manna You did not withhold from their mouth, And You gave them water for their thirst.

21 "Indeed, ¹⁷forty years You provided for them in the wilderness and they were not in want; Their clothes did not wear out, nor did their feet swell.

22 "You also gave them kingdoms and peoples, And allotted them to them as a boundary. ¹⁸They took possession of the land of Sihon the king of Heshbon And the land of Og the king of Bashan.

23 "You made their sons numerous as ¹⁹the stars of heaven, And You brought them into the land Which You had told their fathers to enter and possess.

Nehemiah 9:13-23 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.

Cross References

• 1. Ex 19:11, 18-20
• 2. Exodus 20:1
• 3. Psalms 19:7-9
• 4. Exodus 16:23; Exodus 20:8
• 5. Ex 16:4, 14, 15
• 6. Exodus 17:6; Numbers 20:7-13
• 7. Deuteronomy 1:8, 21
• 8. Nehemiah 9:10
• 9. Deuteronomy 1:26-33; Deuteronomy 31:27; Nehemiah 9:29
• 10. Ps 78:11, 42-55
• 11. Numbers 14:4
• 12. Exodus 34:6, 7; Numbers 14:18
• 13. Ex 32:4-8, 31
• 14. Deuteronomy 8:2-4; Nehemiah 9:27, 31
• 15. Nehemiah 9:12
• 16. Numbers 11:17; Nehemiah 9:30; Isaiah 63:11-14
• 17. Deuteronomy 2:7
• 18. Numbers 21:21-35
• 19. Genesis 15:5; Genesis 22:17

Footnotes

• [a] Lit "lifted up Your hand"
• [b] Lit "stiffened their neck;" so also v 17
• [c] So Gr and some Heb mss; Heb reads "in their rebellion"
• [d] Lit "acts of contempt"
• [e] Lit "side, corner"
• [f] So the Gr and the Latin; Heb reads "and the land of the king of Heshbon"