Nehemiah 9:10-20

10 And thou shewedst signs and wonders in Egypt, on Pharao and all his servants, and on all the people of his land: for thou knowest that they behaved insolently against them: and thou madest thyself a name, as at this day.

11 And thou didst cleave the sea before them, and they passed through the midst of the sea on dry land; and thou didst cast into the deep them that were about to pursue them, as a stone in the mighty water.

12 And thou guidedst them by day by a pillar of cloud, and by night by a pillar of fire, to enlighten for them the way wherein they should walk.

13 Also thou camest down upon mount Sina, and thou spakest to them out of heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and laws of truth, ordinances, and good commandments.

14 And thou didst make known to them thy holy sabbath; thou didst enjoin upon them commandments, and ordinances, and a law, by the hand of thy servant Moses.

15 And thou gavest them bread from heaven for their food, and thou broughtest them forth water from a rock for their thirst; and thou badest them go in to inherit the land over which thou stretchedst out thy hand to give them.

16 But they and our fathers behaved proudly, and hardened their neck, and did not hearken to thy commandments,

17 and refused to listen, and remembered not thy wonders which thou wroughtest with them; and they hardened their neck, and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt: but thou, O God, merciful and compassionate, long-suffering, and abundant in mercy, and thou didst not forsake them.

18 And still farther they even made to themselves a molten calf, and said, These the gods that brought us up out of Egypt: and they wrought great provocations.

19 Yet thou in thy great compassions didst not forsake them in the wilderness: thou didst not turn away from them the pillar of the cloud by day, to guide them in the way, nor the pillar of fire by night, to enlighten for them the way wherein they should walk.

20 And thou gavest thy good Spirit to instruct them, and thou didst not withhold thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water in their thirst.

Nehemiah 9:10-20 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.