Nehemiah 9 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Nehemiah 9

The People of Israel Confess Their Sin

9:1 Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads. 2 And the Israelites¹ separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. 3 And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the LORD their God. 4 On the stairs of the Levites 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, “Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.

6 “You are the LORD, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you. 7 You are the LORD, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham. 8 You found his heart faithful before you, and made with him the covenant to give to his offspring the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite. And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous.

9 “And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea, 10 and performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for you knew that they acted arrogantly against our fathers. And you made a name for yourself, as it is to this day. 11 And you divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land, and you cast their pursuers into the depths, as a stone into mighty waters. 12 By a pillar of cloud you led them in the day, and by a pillar of fire in the night to light for them the way in which they should go. 13 You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven and gave them right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments, 14 and you made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them commandments and statutes and a law by Moses your servant. 15 You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and you told them to go in to possess the land that you had sworn to give them.

16 “But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. 17 They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.³ But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. 18 Even when they had made for themselves a golden⁴ calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed great blasphemies, 19 you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. 20 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 wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

22 “And you gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner. So they took possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan. 23 You multiplied their children as the stars of heaven, and you brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess. 24 So the descendants went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would. 25 And they captured fortified cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses full of all good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness.

26 “Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies. 27 Therefore you gave them into the hand of their enemies, who made them suffer. And in the time of their suffering they cried out to you and you heard them from heaven, and according to your great mercies you gave them saviors who saved them from the hand of their enemies. 28 But after they had rest they did evil again before you, and you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they turned and cried to you, you heard from heaven, and many times you delivered them according to your mercies. 29 And you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules, which if a person does them, he shall live by them, and they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey. 30 Many years you bore with them and warned them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet they would not give ear. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. 31 Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.

32 “Now, therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day. 33 Yet you have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly. 34 Our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law or paid attention to your commandments and your warnings that you gave them. 35 Even in their own kingdom, and amid your great goodness that you gave them, and in the large and rich land that you set before them, they did not serve you or turn from their wicked works. 36 Behold, we are slaves this day; in the land that you gave to our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts, behold, we are slaves. 37 And its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins. They rule over our bodies and over our livestock as they please, and we are in great distress.

38 “Because of all this we make a firm covenant in writing; on the sealed document are the names of⁶ our princes, our Levites, and our priests.

Footnotes

[1] 9:2 Hebrew the offspring of Israel
[2] 9:5 Septuagint adds And Ezra said
[3] 9:17 Some Hebrew manuscripts; many Hebrew manuscripts and in their rebellion appointed a leader to return to their slavery
[4] 9:18 Hebrew metal
[5] 9:37 Ch 10:1 in Hebrew
[6] 9:38 Hebrew lacks the names of

Commentary

v1: Immediately after the Feast of Tabernacles, the people gathered again. The eighth day of the Feast (8.18) was the 22nd day of the month. They came together in shame and sorrow, with fasting, sackcloth and dust.

v2-3: This was a serious business; confession of sins, worship of God. The length of time given for worship was an indication of their commitment. There had already been repentance, since the people had separated themselves from foreigners.

v4-5: The Levites led the people in praise to God, and their praise is recorded in v5-15. It is right to praise God, Ps 92.1-2. The names of Levites here have some in common with the list in 8.7.

v6: The prayer begins with God and His character, then His works of creation and redemption. Only later do they bring a specific request (v32). Biblical prayers are very far from the typical list of requests that we so often fall into.

v7-8: 'You chose Abram'; God was faithful to His promises; He gave the people the land promised to Abraham (Abram). Abraham had a heart faithful to God; later the people of Israel had hard hearts (v16-17). God is interested in our hearts and our attitudes. Although Abram is described as faithful, the promises of God are fulfilled because He is righteous. The fulfilment of divine promises is through divine power.

v9-12: God's power and kindness in delivering the people from Egypt. The promise to Abraham began to be fulfilled, see v24-25. God's mighty works against the Egyptians remained as a testimony for centuries; people everywhere knew about what He had done, and people still do.

The signs and wonders were for God's people; "You divided the sea before them, so that they passed through it on dry ground...you led them...to give them light on the way they were to take." These events were no coincidence of natural phenomena.

v13-14: God came down to speak with His people. See Ps 147.20. Again, no nation could make such a claim. In Heb 1.1-2, we read of the God who continued to speak, ultimately through Jesus Christ His Son.

v15: God provided food and drink; He cared for His people. In Luke 9.11,16, the Lord Jesus similarly taught and healed and fed the people. Jesus Christ did the works of God.

v16: The theme changes, as the prayer relates Israel's unfaithfulness towards God. Like the Egyptians (v10), they acted proudly.

v17: They refused to listen to God. They forgot the mighty miracles they had witnessed. They even planned to return to Egypt (Num 14.4) "to their slavery". Yet God remained "gracious and compassionate"; whatever the rebellion of His people, God remains God. His character is unchanging. "Therefore you did not desert them".

v18: "Even when" they fell into idolatry, the most dreadful of all sins, for this was 'spiritual adultery', departing from the true and living God, to worship false gods. See Jer 2.13. One of the powerful effects of the exile in Babylon was that idolatry was dealt a fatal blow. Although the people turned to many sins, inter-marrying with Gentiles, greed, hypocrisy, etc., they did not return to idolatry.

Yet, even when they turned to worship idols, God was faithful, and ready to forgive, Ex 32.

v19-21: God's manifold mercies; He sustained them in the desert;

you did not abandon them in the desert;
the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire remained;
you gave your good Spirit to instruct them;
you did not withhold your manna from their mouths;
you gave them water for their thirst;
they lacked nothing;
their clothes did not wear out; and
their feet did not become swollen.

And yet they still grumbled! And we still grumble, not realising how much God gives us.

v22-25: The people inherited Canaan, the land promised by God. God had prepared much for His people to enjoy. In Christ we have a rich inheritance. We must delight in His great goodness. The land referred to here includes land to the east of the Jordan, strictly outside the promised land; so God gave more than He had promised!

The emphasis here is on God's work, "you gave...you made...you brought them...you subdued..." Yet the people of Israel had to co-operate, "They took over the country of Sihon...and the country of Og...Their sons went in and took possession of the land...they captured fortified cities; they took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things..."

v26-31: Once in the land, the people resorted to rebellion against God. More rebellions and more deliverances. God sent judges and prophets. Many times they rebelled, and many times He delivered them. Compare Judg 2.16-23, which describes this same cycle. Yet the later history, when the kings ruled, also followed a similar pattern.

God sent prophets; who admonished them and warned them. Yet they refused to listen, and became stiff-necked. God showed His mercy that the people were not destroyed, see Is 1.9.

v32: The hardship which the people had endured was 'their own fault', since they had persistently rebelled against God. These words indicate that the suffering endured by the people was real and painful.

v33: In all that had happened, God had acted righteously and faithfully (Rom 3.4). Whilst Israel comes out as fickle, God remains utterly faithful (2 Tim 2.13). God judged His people in accordance with His word, and He preserved them in accordance with His word.

v34-37: There is no word of grumbling. Israel's predicament was of her own making. The people had become slaves to others, serving the kings who ruled the land. IN summary, "we are in great distress." Yet the people, through the Levites, had cast themselves afresh upon God.

v38: So, their response was to covenant to honour God, to return to the ways of truth.