Nehemiah 9:1-5

The People Confess Their Sin

1 Now on the twenty-fourth * day of ¹this month the sons of Israel assembled ²with fasting, in sackcloth and with ³dirt upon them.

2 The ⁴descendants of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners *, and stood and ⁵confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.

3 While ⁶they stood in their place, they read from the book of the law of the LORD their God for a fourth of the day; and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the LORD their God.

4 ⁷Now on the Levites' platform stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Chenani, and they cried with a loud voice to the LORD their God.

5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah, said, "Arise, bless the LORD your God forever * and ever! O may Your glorious name be blessed And 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.

Cross References

• 1. Nehemiah 8:2
• 2. Ezra 8:23
• 3. 1 Samuel 4:12
• 4. Ezra 10:11; Nehemiah 13:3
• 5. Proverbs 28:13; Jeremiah 3:13
• 6. Nehemiah 8:4
• 7. Nehemiah 8:7

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "seed"