26 But they were hard-hearted, and went against your authority, turning their backs on your law, and putting to death your prophets, who gave witness against them with the purpose of turning them back again to you, and they did much to make you angry.
But you have done evil more than any before you, and have made for yourself other gods, and images of metal, moving me to wrath, and turning your back on me.
Even when they had made for themselves an ox of metal, and said, This is your God who took you up out of Egypt, and had done so much to make you angry;
And the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord and became servants to the Baals; And they gave up the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had taken them out of the land of Egypt, and went after other gods, the gods of the peoples round about them, worshipping them and moving the Lord to wrath.
And he said, I have been burning for the honour of the Lord, the God of armies; for the children of Israel have not kept your agreement; they have made destruction of your altars, and have put your prophets to death with the sword: till I, even I, am the only one living; and now they are attempting to take away my life.
For when Jezebel was cutting off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred of them, and kept them secretly in a hole in the rock, fifty at a time, and gave them bread and water.)
And the workmen made an attack on his servants, giving blows to one, putting another to death, and stoning another.
But the children would not be controlled by me; they were not guided by my rules, and they did not keep and do my orders, which, if a man does them, will be life to him; and they had no respect for my Sabbaths: then I said I would let loose my passion on them to give full effect to my wrath against them in the waste land.
But they put shame on the servants of God, making sport of his words and laughing at his prophets, till the wrath of God was moved against his people, till there was no help.
Then the spirit of God came on Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest, and, getting up before the people, he said to them, God has said, Why do you go against the orders of the Lord, so that everything goes badly for you? because you have given up the Lord, he has given you up. But when they had made a secret design against him, he was stoned with stones, by the king's order, in the outer square of the Lord's house.
If, when he sees the sword coming on the land, by sounding the horn he gives the people news of their danger; Then anyone who, hearing the sound of the horn, does not take note of it, will himself be responsible for his death, if the sword comes and takes him away. On hearing the sound of the horn, he did not take note; his blood will be on him; for if he had taken note his life would have been safe.
For this reason, I send you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: some of them you will put to death and put on the cross, and to some of them you will give blows in your Synagogues, driving them from town to town; So that on you may come all the blood of the upright on the earth, from the blood of upright Abel to the blood of Zachariah, son of Barachiah, whom you put to death between the Temple and the altar. Truly I say to you, All these things will come on this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, putting to death the prophets, and stoning those who are sent to her! Again and again would I have taken your children to myself as a bird takes her young ones under her wings, and you would not!
And they took as wives the daughters of these nations and gave their daughters to their sons, and became servants to their gods. And the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and put out of their minds the Lord their God, and became servants to the Baals and the Astartes.
Their names were Oholah, the older, and Oholibah, her sister: and they became mine, and gave birth to sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem, Oholibah. And Oholah was untrue to me when she was mine; she was full of desire for her lovers, even for the Assyrians, her neighbours, Who were clothed in blue, captains and rulers, all of them young men to be desired, horsemen seated on horses. And she gave her unclean love to them, all of them the noblest men of Assyria: and she made herself unclean with the images of all who were desired by her. And she has not given up her loose ways from the time when she was in Egypt; for when she was young they were her lovers, and by them her young breasts were crushed, and they let loose on her their unclean desire. For this cause I gave her up into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians on whom her desire was fixed. By these her shame was uncovered: they took her sons and daughters and put her to death with the sword: and she became a cause of wonder to women; for they gave her the punishment which was right. And her sister Oholibah saw this, but her desire was even more unmeasured, and her loose behaviour was worse than that of her sister. She was full of desire for the Assyrians, captains and rulers, her neighbours, clothed in blue, horsemen going on horses, all of them young men to be desired. And I saw that she had become unclean; the two of them went the same way. And her loose behaviour became worse; for she saw men pictured on a wall, pictures of the Chaldaeans painted in bright red, With bands round their bodies and with head-dresses hanging round their heads, all of them looking like rulers, like the Babylonians, the land of whose birth is Chaldaea. And when she saw them she was full of desire for them, and sent servants to them in Chaldaea. And the Babylonians came to her, into the bed of love, and made her unclean with their loose desire, and she became unclean with them, and her soul was turned from them. So her loose behaviour was clearly seen and her shame uncovered: then my soul was turned from her as it had been turned from her sister. But still she went on the more with her loose behaviour, keeping in mind the early days when she had been a loose woman in the land of Egypt. And she was full of desire for her lovers, whose flesh is like the flesh of asses and whose seed is like the seed of horses. And she made the memory of the loose ways of her early years come back to mind, when her young breasts were crushed by the Egyptians. For this cause, O Oholibah, this is what the Lord has said: See, I will make your lovers come up against you, even those from whom your soul is turned away in disgust; and I will make them come up against you on every side; The Babylonians and all the Chaldaeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them: young men to be desired, captains and rulers all of them, and chiefs, her neighbours, all of them on horseback. And they will come against you from the north on horseback, with war-carriages and a great band of peoples; they will put themselves in order against you with breastplate and body-cover and metal head-dress round about you: and I will make them your judges, and they will give their decision against you as seems right to them. And my bitter feeling will be working against you, and they will take you in hand with passion; they will take away your nose and your ears, and the rest of you will be put to the sword: they will take your sons and daughters, and the rest of you will be burned up in the fire. And they will take all your clothing off you and take away your ornaments. So I will put an end to your evil ways and your loose behaviour which came from the land of Egypt: and your eyes will never be lifted up to them again, and you will have no more memory of Egypt. For this is what the Lord has said: See, I will give you up into the hands of those who are hated by you, into the hands of those from whom your soul is turned away in disgust: And they will take you in hand with hate, and take away all the fruit of your work, and let you be unveiled and without clothing: and the shame of your loose behaviour will be uncovered, your evil designs and your loose ways. They will do these things to you because you have been untrue to me, and have gone after the nations, and have become unclean with their images. You have gone in the way of your sister; and I will give her cup into your hand. This is what the Lord has said: You will take a drink from your sister's cup, which is deep and wide: you will be laughed at and looked down on, more than you are able to undergo. You will be broken and full of sorrow, with the cup of wonder and destruction, with the cup of your sister Samaria. And after drinking it and draining it out, you will take the last drops of it to the end, pulling off your breasts: for I have said it, says the Lord. So this is what the Lord has said: Because you have not kept me in your memory, and because your back has been turned to me, you will even undergo the punishment of your evil designs and your loose ways. Then the Lord said to me: Son of man, will you be the judge of Oholibah? then make clear to her the disgusting things she has done. For she has been false to me, and blood is on her hands, and with her images she has been untrue; and more than this, she made her sons, whom she had by me, go through the fire to them to be burned up. Further, this is what she has done to me: she has made my holy place unclean and has made my Sabbaths unclean. For when she had made an offering of her children to her images, she came into my holy place to make it unclean; see, this is what she has done inside my house. And she even sent for men to come from far away, to whom a servant was sent, and they came: for whom she was washing her body and painting her eyes and making herself fair with ornaments. And she took her seat on a great bed, with a table put ready before it on which she put my perfume and my oil. ... and they put jewels on her hands and beautiful crowns on her head. Then I said ... now she will go on with her loose ways. And they went in to her, as men go to a loose woman: so they went in to Oholibah, the loose woman. And upright men will be her judges, judging her as false wives and women who take lives are judged; because she has been untrue to me and blood is on her hands. For this is what the Lord has said: I will make a great meeting of the people come together against her, and will send on her shaking fear and take everything from her. And the meeting, after stoning her with stones, will put an end to her with their swords; they will put her sons and daughters to death and have her house burned up with fire. And I will put an end to evil in all the land, teaching all women not to do as you have done. And I will send on you the punishment of your evil ways, and you will be rewarded for your sins with your images: and you will be certain that I am the Lord.
Her rulers in her are like a loud-voiced lion violently taking his food; they have made a meal of souls; they have taken wealth and valued property; they have made great the number of widows in her. Her priests have been acting violently against my law; they have made my holy things unclean: they have made no division between what is holy and what is common, and they have not made it clear that the unclean is different from the clean, and their eyes have been shut to my Sabbaths, and I am not honoured among them. Her rulers in her are like wolves violently taking their food; putting men to death and causing the destruction of souls, so that they may get their profit. And her prophets have been using whitewash, seeing foolish visions and making false use of secret arts, saying, This is what the Lord has said, when the Lord has said nothing. The people of the land have been acting cruelly, taking men's goods by force; they have been hard on the poor and those in need, and have done wrong to the man from a strange land. And I was looking for a man among them who would make up the wall and take his station in the broken place before me for the land, so that I might not send destruction on it: but there was no one. And I let loose my passion on them, and have put an end to them in the fire of my wrath: I have made the punishment of their ways come on their heads, says the Lord.
But you put your faith in the fact that you were beautiful, acting like a loose woman because you were widely talked of, and offering your cheap love to everyone who went by, whoever it might be. And you took your robes and made high places for yourself ornamented with every colour, acting like a loose woman on them, without shame or fear. And you took the fair jewels, my silver and gold which I had given to you, and made for yourself male images, acting like a loose woman with them; And you took your robes of needlework for their clothing, and put my oil and my perfume before them. And my bread which I gave you, the best meal and oil and honey which I gave you for your food, you put it before them for a sweet smell, says the Lord. And you took your sons and your daughters whom I had by you, offering even these to them to be their food. Was your loose behaviour so small a thing, That you put my children to death and gave them up to go through the fire to them? And in all your disgusting and false behaviour you had no memory of your early days, when you were uncovered and without clothing, stretched out in your blood. And it came about, after all your evil-doing, says the Lord, That you made for yourself an arched room in every open place. You put up your high places at the top of every street, and made the grace of your form a disgusting thing, opening your feet to everyone who went by, increasing your loose ways. And you went with the Egyptians, your neighbours, great of flesh; increasing your loose ways, moving me to wrath. Now, then, my hand is stretched out against you, cutting down your fixed amount, and I have given you up to the desire of your haters, the daughters of the Philistines who are shamed by your loose ways. And you went with the Assyrians, because of your desire which was without measure; you were acting like a loose woman with them, and still you had not enough. And you went on in your loose ways, even as far as the land of Chaldaea, and still you had not enough. How feeble is your heart, says the Lord, seeing that you do all these things, the work of a loose and overruling woman; For you have made your arched room at the top of every street, and your high place in every open place; though you were not like a loose woman in getting together your payment. The untrue wife who takes strange lovers in place of her husband! They give payment to all loose women: but you give rewards to your lovers, offering them payment so that they may come to you on every side for your cheap love. And in your loose behaviour you are different from other women, for no one goes after you to make love to you: and because you give payment and no payment is given to you, in this you are different from them. For this cause, O loose woman, give ear to the voice of the Lord: This is what the Lord has said: Because your unclean behaviour was let loose and your body uncovered in your loose ways with your lovers and with your disgusting images, and for the blood of your children which you gave to them; For this cause I will get together all your lovers with whom you have taken your pleasure, and all those to whom you have given your love, with all those who were hated by you; I will even make them come together against you on every side, and I will have you uncovered before them so that they may see your shame. And you will be judged by me as women are judged who have been untrue to their husbands and have taken life; and I will let loose against you passion and bitter feeling. I will give you into their hands, and your arched room will be overturned and your high places broken down; they will take your clothing off you and take away your fair jewels: and when they have done, you will be uncovered and shamed. And they will get together a meeting against you, stoning you with stones and wounding you with their swords. And they will have you burned with fire, sending punishments on you before the eyes of great numbers of women; and I will put an end to your loose ways, and you will no longer give payment. And the heat of my wrath against you will have an end, and my bitter feeling will be turned away from you, and I will be quiet and will be angry no longer. Because you have not kept in mind the days when you were young, but have been troubling me with all these things; for this reason I will make the punishment of your ways come on your head, says the Lord, because you have done this evil thing in addition to all your disgusting acts. See, in every common saying about you it will be said, As the mother is, so is her daughter. You are the daughter of your mother whose soul is turned in disgust from her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters who were turned in disgust from their husbands and their children: your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. Your older sister is Samaria, living at your left hand, she and her daughters: and your younger sister, living at your right hand, is Sodom and her daughters. Still you have not gone in their ways or done the disgusting things which they have done; but, as if that was only a little thing, you have gone deeper in evil than they in all your ways. By my life, says the Lord, Sodom your sister never did, she or her daughters, what you and your daughters have done. Truly, this was the sin of your sister Sodom: pride, a full measure of food, and the comforts of wealth in peace, were seen in her and her daughters, and she gave no help to the poor or to those in need. They were full of pride and did what was disgusting to me: and so I took them away as you have seen. And Samaria has not done half your sins; but you have made the number of your disgusting acts greater than theirs, making your sisters seem more upright than you by all the disgusting things which you have done. And you yourself will be put to shame, in that you have given the decision for your sisters; through your sins, which are more disgusting than theirs, they are more upright than you: truly, you will be shamed and made low, for you have made your sisters seem upright. And I will let their fate be changed, the fate of Sodom and her daughters, and the fate of Samaria and her daughters, and your fate with theirs. So that you will be shamed and made low because of all you have done, when I have mercy on you. And your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, will go back to their first condition, and Samaria and her daughters will go back to their first condition, and you and your daughters will go back to your first condition. Was not your sister Sodom an oath in your mouth in the day of your pride, Before your shame was uncovered? Now you have become like her a word of shame to the daughters of Edom and all who are round about you, the daughters of the Philistines who put shame on you round about. The reward of your evil designs and your disgusting ways has come on you, says the Lord. For this is what the Lord has said: I will do to you as you have done, you who, putting the oath on one side, have let the agreement be broken. But still I will keep in mind the agreement made with you in the days when you were young, and I will make with you an eternal agreement. Then at the memory of your ways you will be overcome with shame, when I take your sisters, the older and the younger, and give them to you for daughters, but not by your agreement. And I will make my agreement with you; and you will be certain that I am the Lord: So that, at the memory of these things, you may be at a loss, never opening your mouth because of your shame; when you have my forgiveness for all you have done, says the Lord.
And there was another man who was a prophet of the Lord, Uriah, the son of Shemaiah of Kiriath-jearim; he said against this town and against this land all the words which Jeremiah had said: And when his words came to the ears of Jehoiakim the king and all his men of war and his captains, the king would have put him to death; but Uriah, hearing of it, was full of fear and went in flight into Egypt: And Jehoiakim the king sent Elnathan, the son of Achbor, and certain men with him, into Egypt. And they took Uriah out of Egypt and came back with him to Jehoiakim the king; who put him to death with the sword, and had his dead body put into the resting-place of the bodies of the common people.
They did not put an end to the peoples, as the Lord had said; But they were joined to the nations, learning their works. And they gave worship to images; which were a danger to them: They even made offerings of their sons and their daughters to evil spirits, And gave the blood of their sons and their daughters who had done no wrong, offering them to the images of Canaan; and the land was made unclean with blood. So they became unclean through their works, going after their evil desires. Then the wrath of the Lord was burning against his people, and he was angry with his heritage.
But they were bitter against the Most High God, testing him, and not keeping his laws; Their hearts were turned back and untrue like their fathers; they were turned to one side like a twisted bow.
Because Manasseh, king of Judah, has done these disgusting things, doing more evil than all the Amorites before him, and making Judah do evil with his false gods,
Has my lord not had word of what I did when Jezebel was putting the Lord's prophets to death? how I kept a hundred of them in a secret hole in the rock, fifty at a time, and gave them bread and water?
And again the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord, worshipping the Baals and Astartes, and the gods of Aram and the gods of Zidon and the gods of Moab and the gods of the children of Ammon and the gods of the Philistines; they gave up the Lord and were servants to him no longer.
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Commentary on Nehemiah 9 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
The day of general fasting and prayer . - On the twenty-fourth day of the month, i.e., two days after the termination of the feast of tabernacles, the children of Israel re-assembled in the temple to humble themselves before God with mourning and fasting, and, after the reading of the law, to confess their own sins and the sins of their fathers (Nehemiah 9:1-3). After the Levites had invited them to praise God (Nehemiah 9:4, Nehemiah 9:5), a general confession was made, in which the congregation was reminded of all the grace and favour shown by God to His people, from the days of Abraham down to the time then present; and all the departures of the people from their God, all their rebellions against Him, were acknowledged, to show that the bondage and oppression to which Israel was not subjected were the well-deserved punishment of their sins (vv. 6-37). This confession of sin much resembles the confession of the faithfulness of God and the unfaithfulness of Israel in the Psalms 106:1, both in its plan and details, but differs from this “Hallelujah Psalm” in the circumstance that it does not rise to the praise of God, to the hallelujah, but stops at the confession that God is righteous and true in all that He has done, and that Israel has done wickedly, without definitely uttering a request for pardon and deliverance from oppression.
On the twenty-second of Tishri was the Hazereth of the feast of tabernacles; on the twenty-fourth the congregation re-assembled in the temple, “with fasting and with sackcloths (penitential garments made of hair; see rem. Joel 1:8) and earth upon them,” i.e., spread upon their heads (1 Samuel 4:12; 2 Samuel 1:2; Job 2:12), - the external marks of deep mourning and heaviness of heart.
Nehemiah 9:2
“And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed all their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.” This separation from strangers does not specially relate to the dissolution of the marriages contracted with heathen women, nor to any measures taken that only Israelites should be admitted to this assembly (Bertheau). It was rather a voluntary renunciation of connection with the heathen, and of heathen customs.
Nehemiah 9:3
And they stood up (i.e., remained standing) in their place (comp. Nehemiah 8:7), and read in the book of the law of the Lord their God, i.e., listened to the reading of the law, a fourth part of the day (about three hours), and a fourth part (the next three hours) they confessed (made a confession of their sins), and worshipped the Lord their God. This confession and worship is more nearly described vv. 4-37.
There stood upon the scaffold of the Levites, i.e., upon the platform erected for the Levites (comp. Nehemiah 8:4), Jeshua and seven other Levites whose names are given, and they cried with a loud voice to God, and said to the assembled congregation, “Stand up, bless the Lord your God for ever and ever! and blessed be the name of Thy glory, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.” The repetition of the names of the Levites in Nehemiah 9:5 shows that this invitation to praise God is distinct from the crying to God with a loud voice of Nehemiah 9:4, and seems to say that the Levites first cried to God, i.e., addressed to Him their confessions and supplications, and after having done so, called upon the congregation to worship God. Eight names of Levites being given in both verses, and five of these - Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, and Sherebiah - being identical, the difference of the three others in the two verses - Bunni, Bani, and Chenani (Nehemiah 9:4), and Hashabniah, Hodijah, and Pethahiah (Nehemiah 9:5) - seems to have arisen from a clerical error, - an appearance favoured also by the circumstance that Bani occurs twice in Nehemiah 9:4. Of the other names in question, Hodijah occurs Nehemiah 10:14, and Pethahiah Ezra 10:23, as names of Levites, but כּנני and חשׁבניה nowhere else. Hence Bunni, Bani, and Chenani (Nehemiah 9:4), and Hashabniah (Nehemiah 9:5), may be assigned to a clerical error; but we have no means for restoring the correct names. With regard to the matter of these verses, Ramb. remarks on Nehemiah 9:4 : constitisse opinor omnes simul, ita tamen ut unus tantum eodem tempore fuerit precatus, ceteris ipsi adstantibus atque sua etiam vice Deum orantibus , hence that the eight Levites prayed to God successively; while Bertheau thinks that these Levites entreated God, in penitential and supplicatory psalms, to have mercy on His sinful but penitent people. In this case we must also regard their address to the congregation in Nehemiah 9:5 as a liturgical hymn, to which the congregation responded by praising God in chorus. To this view may be objected the circumstance, that no allusion is made in the narrative to the singing of penitential or other songs. Besides, a confession of sins follows in vv. 6-37, which may fitly be called a crying unto God, without its being stated by whom it was uttered. “This section,” says Bertheau, “whether we regard its form or contents, cannot have been sung either by the Levites or the congregation. We recognise in it the speech of an individual, and hence accept the view that the statement of the lxx, that after the singing of the Levites, Nehemiah 9:4, and the praising of God in Nehemiah 9:5, Ezra came forward and spoke the words following, is correct, and that the words καὶ εἶπεν Ἔσδρας , which it inserts before Nehemiah 9:6, originally stood in the Hebrew text.” But if Psalms, such as Ps 105-106, and 107, were evidently appointed to be sung to the praise of God by the Levites or by the congregation, there can be no reason why the prayer vv. 6-37 should not be adapted both in form and matter for this purpose. This prayer by no means bears the impress of being the address of an individual, but is throughout the confession of the whole congregation. The prayer speaks of our fathers (Nehemiah 9:9, Nehemiah 9:16), of what is come upon us (Nehemiah 9:33), addresses Jahve as our God, and says we have sinned. Of course Ezra might have uttered it in the name of the congregation; but that the addition of the lxx, καὶ εἶπεν Ἔσδρας , is of no critical value, and is a mere conjecture of the translators, is evident from the circumstance that the prayer does not begin with the words יהוה הוּא אתּה of v. 6, but passes into the form of direct address to God in the last clause of v. 5: Blessed be the name of Thy glory. By these words the prayer which follows is evidently declared to be the confession of those who are to praise the glory of the Lord; and the addition, “and Ezra said,” characterized as an unskilful interpolation.
According to what has now been said, the summons, יהוה את בּרכוּ קוּמוּ , Nehemiah 9:5, like the introductions to may Hodu and Hallelujah Psalms (e.g., Psalms 105:1; Psalms 106:1), is to be regarded as only an exhortation to the congregation to praise God, i.e., to join in the praises following, and to unite heartily in the confession of sin. This view of the connection of Nehemiah 9:5 and Nehemiah 9:6 explains the reason why it is not stated either in Nehemiah 9:6, or at the close of this prayer in Nehemiah 9:37, that the assembled congregation blessed God agreeably to the summons thus addressed to them. They did so by silently and heartily praying to, and praising God with the Levites, who were reciting aloud the confession of sin. On ויברכוּ R. Sal. already remarks: nunc incipiunt loqui Levitae versus Shechinam s. ad ipsum Deum . The invitation to praise God insensibly passes into the action of praising. If, moreover, vv. 6-37 are related in the manner above stated to Nehemiah 9:5, then it is not probable that the crying to God with a loud voice (Nehemiah 9:4) was anything else than the utterance of the prayer subsequently given, vv. 6-37. The repetition of the names in Nehemiah 9:5 is not enough to confirm this view, but must be explained by the breadth of the representation here given, and is rescued from the charge of mere tautology by the fact that in Nehemiah 9:4 the office of the individuals in question is not named, which it is by the word הלויּם in Nehemiah 9:5. For הלויּם in Nehemiah 9:4 belongs as genitive to מעלה , and both priests and laymen might have stood on the platform of the Levites. For this reason it is subsequently stated in Nehemiah 9:5, that Jeshua, etc., were Levites; and in doing this the names are again enumerated. In the exhortation, Stand up and bless, etc., Bertheau seeks to separate “for ever and ever” from the imp. בּרכוּ , and to take it as a further qualification of אלהיכם . This is, however, unnatural and arbitrary; comp. 1 Chronicles 16:26. Still more arbitrary is it to supply “One day all people” to ויברכוּ , “shall bless Thy name,” etc. וגו וּמרומם adds a second predicate to שׁם : and which is exalted above all blessing and praise, i.e., sublimius est quam ut pro dignitate laudari possit (R. Sal.).
In Nehemiah 9:6 this praising of God begins with the acknowledgment that Jahve, the Creator of heaven and earth, chose Abram and made a covenant with him to give the land of Canaan to his seed, and had performed this word (Nehemiah 9:6-8). These verses form the theme of that blessing the name of His glory, to which the Levites exhorted. This theme is then elucidated by facts from Israel's history, in four strophes. a . When God saw the affliction of His people in Egypt, He delivered them by great signs and wonders from the power of Pharaoh, gave them laws and judgments on Sinai, miraculously provided them with food and water in the wilderness, and commanded them to take possession of the promised land (Nehemiah 9:9-15). b . Although their fathers rebelled against Him, even in the wilderness, God did not withdraw His mercy from them, but sustained them forty years, so that they lacked nothing; and subdued kings before them, so that they were able to conquer and possess the land (Nehemiah 9:16-25). c . After they were settled in the land they rebelled again, and God delivered them into the hand of their oppressors; but as often as they cried unto Him, He helped them again, till at length, because of their continued opposition, He gave them into the power of the people of the lands, yet of His great mercy did not wholly cast them off (Nehemiah 9:26-31). d . May He now too look upon the affliction of His people, as the God that keepeth covenant and mercy, although they have deserved by their sins the troubles they are suffering (Nehemiah 9:32-37).
Nehemiah 9:6
“Thou art Jahve alone; Thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, and all their host, the earth and all that is thereon, the sea and all therein; and Thou givest life to them all, and the host of heaven worshippeth Thee. Nehemiah 9:7 Thou art Jahve, the God who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham: Nehemiah 9:8 And foundest his heart faithful before Thee, and madest a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give to his seed, and hast performed Thy word; for Thou art righteous.” Jahve alone is God, the Creator of heaven and earth, and of all creatures in heaven and on earth. In order duly to exalt the almightiness of God, the notion of heaven is enhanced by the addition “heaven of heavens,” as in Deuteronomy 10:14; 1 Kings 8:27; and that of earth by the addition ”the sea and all therein;” comp. Psalms 146:6. כּל־צבאם , Genesis 2:1, here refers only to heaven. מחיּה , to cause to live = to give and preserve life. כּלּם relates to all creatures in heaven and earth. The host of heaven who worshipped God are the angels, as in Psalms 148:2; Psalms 103:21. This only God chose Abram; comp. Genesis 12:1 with Genesis 11:31 and Genesis 15:7; Genesis 17:5, where God bestowed upon the patriarch Abram the name of Abraham. The words, “Thou foundest his heart faithful,” refer to בּיהוה האמין there mentioned. The making of a covenant alludes to Genesis 17:5.; the enumeration of six Canaanitish nations to Deuteronomy 7:1; Exodus 3:8; comp. with Genesis 15:20. This His word God performed (fulfilled), for He is righteous. God is called צדּיק , inasmuch as with Him word and deed correspond with each other; comp. Deuteronomy 32:4.
The fulfilment of this word by the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and their guidance through the wilderness to Canaan.
Nehemiah 9:9-11
“And Thou sawest the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry by the Red Sea: Nehemiah 9:10 And showedst signs and wonders upon Pharaoh and all his servants, and on all the people of his land, because Thou knewest that they dealt proudly against them, and madest Thyself a name, as this day. Nehemiah 9:11 And Thou dividedst the sea before them, and they went through the midst of the sea on dry land; and their persecutors Thou threwest into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters.” In Nehemiah 9:9 are comprised two subjects, which are carried out in Nehemiah 9:10, Nehemiah 9:11 : (1) the affliction of the Israelites in Egypt, which God saw (comp. Exodus 3:7), and out of which He delivered them by the signs and wonders He showed upon Pharaoh (Nehemiah 9:10); (2) the crying for help at the Red Sea, when the Israelites perceived Pharaoh with his horsemen and chariots in pursuit (Exodus 14:10), and the help which God gave them by dividing the sea, etc. (Nehemiah 9:11). The words in Nehemiah 9:10 are supported by Deuteronomy 6:22, on the ground of the historical narrative, Ex 7-10. The expression עליהם הזידוּ כּי is formed according to עליהם זדוּ אשׁר , Exodus 18:11. על הזיד occurs Exodus 21:14 in a general sense. On וגו שׁם לך ותּעשׂ comp. Jeremiah 32:20; Isaiah 58:12, Isaiah 58:14; 1 Chronicles 17:22. A name as this day - in that the miracles which God then did are still praised, and He continues still to manifest His almighty power. The words of Nehemiah 9:11 are supported by Exodus 14:21-22, Exodus 14:28, and Exodus 15:19. אבן כּמו בּמצולות are from Exodus 15:5; עזּים בּמים from Ex 15 and Isaiah 43:16.
Nehemiah 9:12-15
“And Thou leddest them in the day by a cloudy pillar, and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein they should go. Nehemiah 9:13 And Thou camest down upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments: Nehemiah 9:14 And madest known unto them Thy holy Sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses Thy servant. Nehemiah 9:15 And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst; and Thou commandedst them to go in and possess the land, which Thou hadst lifted up Thine hand to give them.” Three particulars in the miraculous leading of Israel through the wilderness are brought forward: a . Their being guided in the way by miraculous tokens of the divine presence, in the pillar of fire and cloud, Nehemiah 9:12; comp. Exodus 13:21; Numbers 14:14. b . The revelation of God on Sinai, and the giving of the law, Nehemiah 9:13, Nehemiah 9:14. The descent of God on Sinai and the voice from heaven agree with Exodus 19:18, Exodus 19:20, and Exodus 20:1., compared with Deuteronomy 4:36. On the various designations of the law, comp. Psalms 19:9; Psalms 119:43, Psalms 119:39, Psalms 119:142. Of the commandments, that concerning the Sabbath is specially mentioned, and spoken of as a benefit bestowed by God upon the Israelites, as a proclamation of His holy Sabbath, inasmuch as the Israelites were on the Sabbath to share in the rest of God; see rem. on Exodus 20:9-11. c . The provision of manna, and of water from the rock, for their support during their journey through the wilderness on the way to Canaan; Exodus 16:4, Exodus 16:10., Exodus 17:6; Numbers 20:8; comp. Psalms 78:24, Psalms 78:15; Psalms 105:40. לרשׁת לבוא like Deuteronomy 9:1, Deuteronomy 9:5; Deuteronomy 11:31, and elsewhere. את־ידך נשׂאת is to be understood according to Numbers 14:30.
Even the fathers to whom God had shown such favour, repeatedly departed from and rebelled against Him; but God of His great mercy did not forsake them, but brought them into possession of the promised land.
Nehemiah 9:16-17
“And they, even our fathers, dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to Thy commandments. Nehemiah 9:17 They refused to obey, and were not mindful of Thy wonders that Thou didst amongst them; and hardened their necks, and appointed a captain to return to their bondage. But Thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not.” In these verses the conduct of the children of Israel towards God is contrasted with His kindness towards this stiff-necked people, the historical confirmation following in Nehemiah 9:18. והם is emphatic, and prefixed to contrast the conduct of the Israelites with the benefits bestowed on them. The contrast is enhanced by the ו explicative before אבתינוּ , even our fathers (which J. D. Michaelis would expunge, from a misconception of its meaning, but which Bertheau with good reason defends). Words are accumulated to describe the stiff-necked resistance of the people. הזידוּ as above, Nehemiah 9:10. “They hardened their necks” refers to Exodus 32:9; Exodus 33:3; Exodus 34:9, and therefore already alludes to the worship of the golden calf at Sinai, mentioned Nehemiah 9:18; while in Nehemiah 9:17, the second great rebellion of the people at Kadesh, on the borders of the promised land, Num 14, is contemplated. The repetition of the expression, “they hardened their hearts,” shows that a second grievous transgression is already spoken of in Nehemiah 9:17. This is made even clearer by the next clause, וגו ראשׁ ויּתּנוּ , which is taken almost verbally from Numbers 14:4 : “They said one to another, Let us make a captain ( ראשׁ נתּנה ), and return to Egypt;” the notion being merely enhanced here by the addition לעבדתם , to their bondage. The comparison with Numbers 14:4 also shows that בּמרים is a clerical error for בּמצרים , as the lxx read; for בּמרים , in their stubbornness, after לעבדתם , gives no appropriate sense. In spite, however, of their stiff-neckedness, God of His mercy and goodness did not forsake them. סליחות אלוהּ , a God of pardons; comp. Daniel 9:9; Psalms 130:4. וגו ורחוּם חנּוּן is a reminiscence of Exodus 34:6. The ו before חסד came into the text by a clerical error.
Nehemiah 9:18-21
“Yea, they even made them a molten calf, and said, This is thy god that brought thee up out of Egypt, and wrought great provocations. Nehemiah 9:19 Yet Thou, in Thy manifold mercies, didst not forsake them in the wilderness; the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day to lead them, and the pillar of fire by night to show them light in the way wherein they should go. Nehemiah 9:20 Thou gavest also Thy good Spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not Thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst: Nehemiah 9:21 And forty years didst Thou sustain them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.” כּי אף , also (even this) = yea even. On the worship of the golden calf, see Exodus 24:4. The words ”they did (wrought) great provocations” involve a condemnation of the worship of the molten calf; nevertheless God did not withdraw His gracious presence, but continued to lead them by the pillar of cloud and fire. The passage Numbers 14:14, according to which the pillar of cloud and fire guided the march of the people through the wilderness after the departure from Sinai, i.e., after their transgression in the matter of the calf, is here alluded to. הענן עמּוּד is rhetorically enhanced by את : and with respect to the cloudy pillar, it departed not; so, too, in the second clause, האשׁ את־עמּוּד ; comp. Ewald, §277, d . The words, Nehemiah 9:20, “Thou gavest Thy good Spirit,” etc., refer to the occurrence, Numbers 11:17, Numbers 11:25, where God endowed the seventy elders with the spirit of prophecy for the confirmation of Moses' authority. The definition “good Spirit” recalls Psalms 143:10. The sending of manna is first mentioned Numbers 11:6-9, comp. Joshua 5:12; the giving of water, Numbers 20:2-8. - In Nehemiah 9:21, all that the Lord did for Israel is summed up in the assertion of Deuteronomy 2:7; Deuteronomy 8:4, חסרוּ לא ; see the explanation of these passages.
Nehemiah 9:22-25
The Lord also fulfilled His promise of giving the land of Canaan to the Israelites notwithstanding their rebelliousness. Nehemiah 9:22 “And Thou gavest them kingdoms and nations, and didst divide them by boundaries; and they took possession of the land of Sihon, both the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan. Nehemiah 9:23 And Thou didst multiply their children as the stars of heaven, and bring them into the land which Thou hadst promised to their fathers, that they should go in to possess. Nehemiah 9:24 And the children went in and possessed the land, and Thou subduedst before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gavest them into their hands, both their kings and the people of the land, to do with them according to their pleasure. Nehemiah 9:25 And they took fortified cities, and a fat land, and took possession of houses filled with all kinds of goods, wells digged, vineyards and olive gardens, and fruit trees in abundance; and they ate and became fat, and delighted themselves in Thy great goodness.” לפאה ותּחלקם is variously explained. Aben Ezra and others refer the suffix to the Canaanites, whom God scattered in multos angulos or varias mundi partes . Others refer it to the Israelites. According to this view, Ramb. says: fecisti eos per omnes terrae Cananaeae angulos habitare ; and Gusset.: distribuisti eis terram usque ad angulum h. l. nulla vel minima regionum particula excepta . But חלק , Piel, generally means the dividing of things; and when used of persons, as in Genesis 49:7; Lamentations 4:16, to divide, to scatter, sensu malo , which is here inapplicable to the Israelites. חלק signifies to divide, especially by lot, and is used chiefly concerning the partition of the land of Canaan, in Kal, Joshua 14:5; Joshua 18:2, and in Piel, Joshua 13:7; Joshua 18:10; Joshua 19:51. The word פּאה also frequently occurs in Joshua, in the sense of a corner or side lying towards a certain quarter of the heavens, and of a boundary; comp. Joshua 15:5; Joshua 18:12, Joshua 18:14-15, Joshua 18:20. According to this, Bertheau rightly takes the words to say: Thou didst divide them (the kingdoms and nations, i.e., the land of these nations) according to sides or boundaries, i.e., according to certain definite limits. Sihon is the king of Heshbon (Deuteronomy 1:4), and the ו before ח את־ארץ מ is not to be expunged as a gloss, but regarded as explicative: and, indeed, both the land of the king of Heshbon and the land of Og. The conquest of these two kingdoms is named first, because it preceded the possession of Canaan (Numbers 21:21-35). The increase of the children of the Israelites is next mentioned, Nehemiah 9:23; the fathers having fallen in the wilderness, and only their children coming into the land of Canaan. The numbering of the people in the plains of Moab (Num 26) is here alluded to, when the new generation was found to be twice as numerous as that which marched out of Egypt; while the words לרשׁת לבוא , here and in Nehemiah 9:15, are similar to Deuteronomy 1:10. The taking possession of Canaan is spoken of in Nehemiah 9:24. ותּכנע recalls Deuteronomy 9:3. כּרצונם , according to their pleasure, comp. Daniel 8:4. Fortified cities, as Jericho and Ai.
But even in that good land the fathers were disobedient: they rejected the commands of God, slew the prophets who admonished them, and were not brought back to the obedience of God even by the chastisement inflicted on them, till at length God delivered them into the hands of Gentile kings, though after His great mercy He did not utterly forsake them. - Nehemiah 9:26 “And they were disobedient, and rebelled against Thee, and cast Thy law behind their backs, and slew Thy prophets which testified against them to turn them to Thee, and they wrought great provocations. Nehemiah 9:27 And Thou deliveredst them into the hand of their oppressors, so that they oppressed them; and in the time of their oppression they cried unto Thee. Then Thou heardest them from heaven, and according to Thy manifold mercies Thou gavest them deliverers, who delivered them out of the hand of their oppressors. Nehemiah 9:28 And when they had rest, they again did evil before Thee. Then Thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them; and they cried again unto Thee, and Thou heardest from heaven, and didst deliver them according to Thy great mercy, many times.”
Nehemiah 9:26
Nehemiah 9:26 again contains, like Nehemiah 9:16, a general condemnation of the conduct of the children of Israel towards the Lord their God during the period between their entrance into Canaan and the captivity, which is then justified by the facts adduced in the verses following. In proof of their disobedience, it is mentioned that they cast the commands of God behind their back (comp. 1 Kings 14:19; Ezekiel 23:35), and slew the prophets, e.g., Zechariah (2 Chronicles 24:21), the prophets of the days of Jezebel ( 1 Kings 18:13; 1 Kings 19:10), and others who rebuked their sins to turn them from them. בּ העיד , to testify against sinners, comp. 2 Kings 17:13, 2 Kings 17:15. The last clause of Nehemiah 9:26 is a kind of refrain, repeated from Nehemiah 9:18.
Nehemiah 9:27-28
Nehemiah 9:27 and Nehemiah 9:28 refer to the times of the judges; comp. Judges 2:11-23. מושׁיעים are the judges whom God raised up to deliver Israel out of the power of their oppressors; comp. Judges 3:9. with Nehemiah 2:16. עתּים רבּות , multitudes of times, is a co-ordinate accusative: at many times, frequently; רבּות like Leviticus 25:51.
Nehemiah 9:29-30
“And testifiedst against them, to bring them back again to Thy law; yet they hearkened not to Thy commandments, and sinned against Thy judgments, which if a man do he shall live in them, and gave a resisting shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear. Nehemiah 9:30 And Thou didst bear with them many years, and didst testify against them by Thy Spirit through Thy prophets; but they would not hearken, therefore Thou gavest them into the hand of the people of the lands. Nehemiah 9:31 Nevertheless in Thy great mercy Thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for Thou art gracious and merciful.”
Nehemiah 9:29 and Nehemiah 9:30 treat of the times of the kings. בּהם ותּעד is the testimony of the prophets against the idolatrous people; comp. Nehemiah 9:26. וּבמשׁפּטיך is emphatically prefixed, and taken up again by בּם . The sentence, which if a man do he shall live in them, is formed upon Leviticus 18:5, comp. Ezekiel 20:11. On the figurative expression, they gave a resisting shoulder, comp. Zechariah 7:11. The simile is taken from the ox, who rears against the yoke, and desires not to bear it; comp. Hosea 4:16. The sentences following are repeated from Nehemiah 9:16. עליהם תּמשׁך is an abbreviated expression for חסד משׁך , Psalms 36:11; Psalms 109:12; Jeremiah 31:3, to draw out, to extend for a long time favour to any one: Thou hadst patience with them for many years, viz., the whole period of kingly rule from Solomon to the times of the Assyrians. The delivering into the power of the people of the lands, i.e., of the heathen (comp. Psalms 106:40.), began with the invasion of the Assyrians (comp. Nehemiah 9:32), who destroyed the kingdom of the ten tribes, and was inflicted upon Judah also by means of the Chaldeans.
Nehemiah 9:31
But in the midst of these judgments also, God, according to His promise, Jeremiah 4:27; Jeremiah 5:10, Jeremiah 5:18; Jeremiah 30:11, and elsewhere, did not utterly forsake His people, nor make a full end of them; for He did not suffer them to become extinct in exile, but preserved a remnant, and delivered it from captivity.
May then, God, who keepeth covenant and mercy, now also look upon the affliction of His people, though kings, rulers, priests, and people have fully deserved this punishment; for they are now bondmen, and in great affliction, in the land of their fathers. Nehemiah 9:32 “And now, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble that hath come upon us, on our kings, our princes our priests, our prophets, and our fathers, and on all Thy people, since the times of the kings of Assyria unto this day, seem little to Thee. Nehemiah 9:33 Thou art just in all that is come upon us; for Thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly. Nehemiah 9:34 And our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept Thy law, nor hearkened to Thy commandments and Thy testimonies, wherewith Thou didst testify against them. Nehemiah 9:35 And they have not served Thee in their kingdom, and in Thy great goodness that Thou gavest them, and in the large and fat land which Thou gavest up to them, and have not turned from their wicked works. Nehemiah 9:36 Behold, we are now bondmen; and the land that Thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof, and the good thereof, behold, we are bondmen in it. Nehemiah 9:37 And it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom Thou hast set over us because of our sins; and they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.” The invocation of God, Nehemiah 9:32, like that in Nehemiah 1:5, is similar to Deuteronomy 10:17. לפניך ימעט אל stands independently, the following clause being emphasized by את , like e.g., Nehemiah 9:19 : Let not what concerns all our trouble be little before Thee; comp. the similar construction with מעט in Joshua 22:17. What seems little is easily disregarded. The prayer is a litotes ; and the sense is, Let our affliction be regarded by Thee as great and heavy. The nouns למלכינוּ , etc., are in apposition to the suffix of מצאתנוּ , the object being continued by ל .
Nehemiah 9:33-34
Thou art just: comp. Nehemiah 9:8, Deuteronomy 32:4; Ezra 9:15. כּל על , upon all, i.e., concerning all that has befallen us; because their sins deserved punishment, and God is only fulfilling His word upon the sinners. In Nehemiah 9:34, את again serves to emphasize the subject. In the enumeration of the different classes of the people, the prophets are here omitted, because, as God's witnesses, they are not reckoned among these who had transgressed, though involved (Nehemiah 9:32) in the sufferings that have fallen on the nation.
(10:1)
הם are the fathers who were not brought to repentance by God's goodness. בּמלכוּתם , in their independent kingdom. הרב טוּבך , Thy much good, i.e., the fulness of Thy goodness, or “in the midst of Thy great blessing” (Bertheau). The predicate הרחבה , the wide, extensive country, is derived from Exodus 3:8. In Nehemiah 9:36., the prayer that God would not lightly regard the trouble of His people, is supported by a statement of the need and affliction in which they still are. They are bondmen in the land which God gave to their fathers as a free people, bondmen of the Persian monarchs; and the increase of the land which God appointed for His people belongs to the kings who rule over them. The rulers of the land dispose of their bodies and their cattle, by carrying off both men and cattle for their use, e.g., for military service. כּרצונם like Nehemiah 9:24.