Nehemiah 9
PATdrink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth. As all nations were wont to do upon their festival days. There being very few among the Greeks, wherein they made lamentations; but they rather exceeded all bounds of decency in their jollity upon sacred solemnities, being wont, besides music and dancing (which were very proper), to entertain one another with jests and scoffs, and unbecoming laughter; as the illustrious Spanhemius shews, in his. observations upon Callimachus’s hymn, inLavacrum Palladis, ad Versum 324. Because they had understood the words that were declared unto them.’] This was an extraordinary reason for their mirth, that they were illuminated in Divine knowledge, and understood the will of God better than they did before.. And delighted themselves in thy great goodness.] Their highest pleasure indeed ought to have been in their thoughts how good God Was unto them; but the meaning of these words is no more than this, That God had bestowed so many blessings upon them, that they took great pleasure in the enjoyment of them.
Nehemiah 9:1
jyi O W, in the twenty and fourth day of this month, the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and until sackclothes, and earth upon them. The feast being over, which ended upon the twenty-second day (all which time mourning was forbidden, as contrary to the nature of the feast, which was to be kept with joy), they now return to that which they were about before, (chap. viii. 9. 12.) and spent this whole day in humbling themselves before God for their sins. The reason why they did not immediately after the feast of tabernacles keep this fast, was (as Josephus Scaliger conjectures), because the twenty-third day was another festival, made by the constitution of the elders, by the same authority wherewith afterward they appointed the feast of Purim, mentioned in the book of Esther. It was called the festival of the law, still observed by the Jews on the twenty-third day pf this, mouth, because then they. make an end of reading the law, which they begin again every year the next sabbath after. Now this being a day of joy, as other festivals were, on which they w r ere forbidden to mourn, they deferred their mourning till this solemnity also was past, and then they fell to weeping again, as they did when they first heard the law read.
Nehemiah 9:2
And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers. Who had been guilty of taking strange women to be their wives; for which Ezra had severely censored them, and. constrained them to put them away. But so depraved were some among them, that it seems they transgressed again in this matter, as they did in other things, who confessed their own guilt, and the guilt of those thatwere before them, and, as a token of their true repentance, separated themselves from these strangers. Which they did in such a manner, that they stood at a distance from them, to shew that they renounced them. For so the word stood is to be taken in this place, not for a posture of prayer, wherein they confessed their Sins; for, appearing in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads, it is more likely they lay down and bewailed themselves, as the manner was in such cases. Arid accordingly the Levites called upon them (ver. 5.) to stand up; which supposes that they lay on the ground, or fell on their knees, and were not standing when they spake unto them.
Nehemiah 9:3
And they stood tip in their place, and read in the book of the law of the Lord their God. That is, the Levites stood up in a place built for them, like that whereon Ezra stood: (chap. viii. 4.) for otherwise they could not have been heard when they read. One fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed, and tvorshipped the Lord their God!] They read the law and confessed (that is, praised God, ver. 5.) interchangeably. For in one fourth part of the day, that is, from the first hour to the third, they did the one, and from thence to the sixth hour (that is, till twelve o’clock) they did the other. Then they began the former again till the ninth hour, and from thence till the evening they spent their time in the other.
Nehemiah 9:4
- Then stood up upon the stairs, of the Levites. Or, upon the scaffold (as the margin translates it), which raised them above the people, that they might all see and hear. Jeshua, and Bant, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Clienani, and cried with a loud. voice tinto the Lord their God.] They most earnestly beseeched him to be merciful to them.
Nehemiah 9:5
Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah said, Stand up and bless the Lord your God for ever and ever. After the Levites beforcnamed had cried to God for mercy (the people, I suppose, begging it on their knees), another company of Levites bade the people stand up, and praise the Lord, and give him thanks as long as they had any being. And blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.] The Levites, it is likely, praised him in these words, acknowledging that the noblest creatures could not reach his superexccllent perfections, and all the people repeated the same words after them. Ver. G. TJtou, even, thou, art Lord alone: thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all.] As they confess the Lord to be the only God, so they attribute two things to him; that he is the Creator and the Conservator of the universe; for having made it, no doubt he takes care of every part thereof. [ • And the host of heaven worshippeth thee.] Sometimes the stars, and sometimes the angels, are called the host of heaven. The latter seems to be here meant; for the other arc mentioned before, when lie saith, the heavens with all their host. Concerning the heaven of heavens, see in Solomon’s prayer, 1 Kings viii. 27.
Nehemiah 9:7
TJtou art the Lord the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of TJr of the Clialdees, and gavest him the name of Abraham. Here follows a compendious history of the affairs of the Hebrew nation, in this confession of God’s benefits, and their ingratitude. Which Nehemiah and Ezra, it is likely, composed in the form of a prayer, and delivered it to the Levites, whom they ordered to speak it distinctly before the whole congregation from their several, scaffolds, which were conveniently placed in several parts of the assembly, that they might be heard. 4
Nehemiah 9:8
Andfoundest his heart faithful before thee. In many instances, especially in that great trial of his faith and obedience, when he required him to offer up his only son to him, (Gen. xxii. and see also Gen. xv. 6. xvii. 5, &c.) Andmadest a covenant with him, to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, arid the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, io give’it, I say, to his seed, and hast performed thy words; for thou art righteous.] True to his word in faithfully fulfilling his promised. (See Gen. xv. 7. 18." xvii. 2. 4. 7, &c.)
Nehemiah 9:9
And didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry by the Red Sea. They pass by all God’s providences over Isaac and Jacob, to come to that which God had done for them since they were, a nation; that is, since he had made good his covenant with Abraham, to multiply his seed as the stars of heaven; at which time he foretold him of the grievous affliction of his seed in Egypt, (Gen. xv. 5. ]3.) from which he graciously delivered them, they here acknowledge, and completedtheir deliverance at the Red Sea.
Nehemiah 9:10
Andshewedst signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all the people of his land. Which are. recorded in the book of Exodus, chap. vii. viii. &c. ll For thou knewestthat they dealt proudly against them.] Intending to make them their slaves for ever, as, for the present, they treated them with the utmost contempt and cruelty, (Exod. v. 17, 18.) So did$t thou get thee a name,asit is this day.] See Exod. ix. 16.. > Ver. 1L And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land*] See Exod. xiv. 21, 22. And their persecutors thou threivest into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters.] So that they sunk down, and rose up no more to persecute them. The Hebrew word signifies the strong or rough waters. And so Bochartus observes out of many Greek authors, that that sea is called, and said, in short, to be Kara iravra
Nehemiah 9:12
Moreover, 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 ivay tvherein they shoidd go. Concerning which, sec Exod. xiii. 21.
Nehemiah 9:13
And on the second day ivere gathered together the chief of the fathers of all the people, the priests, and the Levites, unto Ezra the scribe, even to understand the words of the law.’] This was no festival day, but so desirous were they to be acquainted with the law (of the knowledge of which he had given them a taste), that they came again this day to beg further instruction. Which, it is evident from hence, Ezra gave them, not the priests and the Levites, who came to be instructed by him as well as the people. Thou earnest down also upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right jttdg* Microsoft® 4X2 [chap. IX. merits and trite laws, good statutes and commandments.] This seems to relate, in tho beginning of the verse, to the ten commandments, spoken by the mouth of God himself; but the latter part comprehends all tho law delivered by him to Moses in the mount, (chap. xxi. — xxiii.)
Nehemiah 9:14
And they found rJoritten in the law which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month. It is probable that he read to them particularly the duties belonging to this month,’ wherein they were assembled, in which they found the feast of tabernacles was to be observed; and therefore they came to him for direction how it was to be kept, that they might obey the precept. • And first he informed them that they must dwell in bootfis: which Maimonides shews how it is to be understood in his Seder Zeraim, where he explains the tradition of the ancients, who believed/ that when God gave a precept he also gave the exposition of it, which he pretends was preserved by their wise men; which is a vain fancy of the Jews, to support the credit of their traditions. • But the book Cosri thinks these words [they found it written] are to be understood of the common people; for the better sort understood well enough that such festivals were to be observed, and had not forgotten any of the precepts, (par. iii. sect. 63.) ■ And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath.] The Scripture mentions tho sabbath as a singular gift bestowed upon the Jewish nation, (Exod. xvi. 29.) It being a sign between him and them, that ho was their God, who sanctified, that is, separated them out of all other people to be his peculiar people; that is, the worshippers of the Creator of the world, whom they acknowledged to be the Lord their God, while the heathen worshipped the sun, moon, and stars, and other creatures, as their gods, Exod. xxxi. 13. and Ezekielxx. 12. 20. in which the prophet tells us, that God intended, by this, to shew that he had chosen Israel, as I said, to be his peculiar people above all other nations, and that they had no other God. Andcommandedst them precepts, statutes, andlaivs, by the hand of Moses thy servant.] Which are those beforementioned, which were not spoken by God himself, but delivered by him to Moses in the mount, who was his faithful servant, and delivered nothing but what he received from God’s own mouth. The observation of which is often pressed upon them as an acknowledgment of him to be their Creator, who brought them out of the land of Egypt Vcr. 15. And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and brough test forth water for them out’ofthe rock for their tkirst.] See Exod. xvi. 14, 15. xvii. G. And prpmisedst them that they should go in to possess the land ivhich thou hadst sworn to give them.] Which he set before them, and bade them go and possess it, as Moses tells them, Deut. i. 8.
Nehemiah 9:15
And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying. Then he tells them that proclamation should be made in all their cities, beginning in Jerusalem, that this feast ought to be observed on such a day, (Lev. xxiii. 4. 34.) Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive-branches, and pine-branches, and tnyr tie-branches, and palm-branches, and “branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written.] The nearest mount to Jerusalem was the Mount of Olives, where it is likely all these trees grew. But the word shaman, which we translate olive-branches, our famous Dr. Castell thinks signifies citrons, which is not material, they being such branches as the mount afforded.
Nehemiah 9:16
So the people went forth, and brought them, and made themselves bootfis, every one upon theroofofhis house. Which by the law was to be built flat, (Deut. xxii. 8.) m And in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the water-gate, and in the street oftlte gate ofEphraim.] They durst not make them without the | walls of the city, for fear of their enemies. But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments.] A famous instance of this there was, when they refused to go up and possess the land, to the borders of which he had brought them: (Numb. xiv. 1, 2, &c.) and afterward more insolently rebelled against Moses and Aaron, who had been their conductors through the wilderness, (Numb. xvi. 3.)
Nehemiah 9:17
And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made bootlis, and sat tinder the bootJis. They not only made them, but left their houses, and dwelt in them all the days of the feast.. For since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so: and there was very great gladness.] This is scarce credible, as Mr. Medo speaks, that for a thousand years none of the good kings in Israel should observe this festival, at least in this main circumstance of dwelling in bootlis. But so he thinks it was, and that this horrible omission of this feast alone foresignified the Jews would hot acknowledge Christ, whom this signified to be Emanuel, God dwelling in our flesh. (See book i. discourse xlv. p. 354.) But I think this is not the meaning, that this festival had never been observed since Joshua’s time; for wo read in the foregoing book, that it was kept at their return from Babylon. But the meaning is, that the joy had never been so great as it was now since that time: for which there was a special reason, as the Jews observe in Seder Olam Rabba, cap. 30. for they rejoiced in the days of Joshua, that they had got possession of the land of Canaan; and now they rejoiced that they were restored to it, and quietly settled in it, after they had been cast out of it. * And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks.]’ Their ingratitude was the greater, because these wonders were not done among other nations, but were peculiar to them; which our Saviour makes a very high aggravation of the sins of their posterity, (Matt. xi. 21.) And in their rebellion appointed a captain to return fo their bondage.] See Numb. xiv. 4. where they consulted about it, and it seems came to this resolution, that they agreed upon a captain to lead them back to Egypt: or their resolving to do it was the same with the actual appointment of a captain, as it was in the case of Abraham’s offering his son. But thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious andmerciful,slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not.] This was the character God gave of himself to Moses, (Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7,) which he made good to all generations. (See Psal. cxlv. 8.) Vcr. 18. Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is thy god that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations.] This was the highest I provocation, corisidering how lately he had spoken to them froni heaven not to make a graven image, and how many cautions ho had afterward giveh them against it.
Nehemiah 9:18
‘Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God: and they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according unto the manner.] There was a command that the law should be read on this feast, as I observed above, (Deut. xxxi. 10 — 12.) but not that it should be read every day. This wastheeffect of their great zeal to be instructed in the law of God, which made them desire to hear it on the second day of this month, which was a festival: (ver. 13.) and perhaps the eighth day, on which a solemn assembly was appointed, (Lev. xxiii. 26.) they continued the same holy exercise. But that seems contrary to this verse, which speaks only of seven days.
Nehemiah 9:19
Yet thou, in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness. But gave them an early instance of. his clemency. The pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they should go.] Which testified that, notwithstanding their provocation, God was still among them, and continued his gracious presence with them, of which this was a glorious token, as Moses told them, Numb. xiv. 14.
Nehemiah 9:20
Thou gavest alsothhj good Spirit to instruct them. The spirit of prophecy, which \Vas upon Moses, God imparted to seventy other persons, that the people might be better governed, (Numb. xi. 1G, 17.) And withheldest not thy manna from their mouth.] But continued it till they came to Canaan; or else they might have been starved. (See Josh. v. 12.) And gavest theni water for their thirst.] When the whole congregation deserved to perish, according to their own wish, that they had died when their brethren died before the Lord, (Numb. xix. 3.)
Nehemiah 9:21
Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing: their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not. See Deut. viii. 4.
Nehemiah 9:22
Moreover, thou gavest them kingdoms and nations, and didst divide them into corners. Some translate the last words, TIiou didst divide them by angles; that is, he parted those kingdoms among them as by a line. But others understand it of the people dispossessed by the Jews, whom he drove into corners. So they possessed the land of Siho7i, and the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king ofBashaiu] Most df the inhabitants of which he destroyed, and the rest fled and hid themselves in corners. But it must be observed, that Heshbon being the city of Sihon, (Numb. xxi. 26.) the first words should be rendered, the land of Sihon, even the land of the king of Heshbon.
Nehemiah 9:23
Tlieir children also multipliedst thou as the stars of heaven, and broughtest them into the laud concerning which thou hadst promised to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it.] See Gen. xv. 5.
Nehemiah 9:24
So the children went in and possessed the land; and thou subduedst before them the inhabitants of the land, the Candanites, and gavest them into their hunds, tvith their kings, and the people of the land, that they might do with them as they would.] These words express the easy conquest they made’of the whole country.
Nehemiah 9:25
Ami they took strong cities. The walls of Jericho falling down flat before them. And a fat land.] A fruitful country flowing with milk and honey. And possessed houses full of all goods, wells digged, vine’ yards, and olive-yards, andfmit-trces in abundance.] They were enriched with the estates of the people whom they destroyed, having houses ready built, and well furnished, together with all sort of trees planted to their hands. So they did eat, and were filled, and became fat.] They wanted nothing, but rather had superfluity of all worldly blessings.
Nehemiah 9:26
Neveftlieless they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their backs. The pleasant life they led in the good land God gave them made them wanton, and forgetful of God and of his laws, which they regarded not at all. And slew thy prophets, which testified against them to turn them to thee.] We read of many prophets slain by Jezebel, 1 Kings xviii. 4. xix. 10. And they wrought great provocations.] By abominable idolatries.’
Nehemiah 9:27
Tlierefore. thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies, who vexed them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and, according to thy manifold mercies, thou gavest them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies.] The whole book of Judges verifies this, that God delivered them for their sins unto the Moabites, the Canaanites, and divers other enemies, who grievously domineered over them; but when they cried to God for help, he was so gracious as to send such great men as Barak, Gideon, and others, to be their saviours, that is, deliverers from their tyranny.
Nehemiah 9:28
But after they had rest, they did evil again be fore thee.* No sooner did they begin to prosper, and the judge that saved them was dead, but they revolted from God, who had been so good to them. Therefore leftest thou them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had the dominion over them.] God so abandoned them, that he let the Philistines rule over them forty years, (Judg, xiii. 1.) unto which, perhaps, this passage relates. Yet when tliey returned, and cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and many times didst thou deliver them, according to thy mercies.] For nothing else could move him to it; they being through all generations unconstant and unsteadfast in their obedience.
Nehemiah 9:29
And testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring them dgain unto thy taw. By many remarkable punishments he testified how highly he was displeased with them, that he might reform them. Yet they dealt proudly.] Which one w^ould have expected Should have humbled them; but they grew more bold and obstinate in their sins. And hearkened not unto tlvy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments (zuhich if a man do, he shall live in them).] That is, be a happy man. And withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.] Withdrawing the shoulder is a metaphor (I have observed before) taken from refractory oxen, that draw back, and will not submit to the yoke.
Nehemiah 9:30
Yet many years didst thou forbear them. Bofore he suffered them to be carried captive out of their own land. And testifiedst against them by thy Spirit in thy prophets.] Whom he raised^up (I have observed elsewhere) in every age, in every king’s reign, to tell them their duty, and reprove them for their sins. Yet would they not give ear: therefore gavest thou them into the hand of the people of the lands.’] At last he delivered them into the hands of the Chaldeans, as we read 2 Chron. xxxvi. 15, 16. who are called the people of the lands, because they had got possession of all the countries thereabout, which God put under their power, as he had done other countries beyond Euphrates.
Nehemiah 9:31
Nevertheless, for thy great mercies sake, thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them.* But left them a remnant of the poorer sort in the land, and shewed favour to the captives in the land of Babylon. For thou art a gracious and merciful God.] To which 1 alone they owed their preservation from utter destruction.
Nehemiah 9:32
Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy. Thus he began his address to God before he came from Shushau. (See chap. i. 5.) Let not all the trouble seem little before thee thdt hath come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the kings of Assyria unto this day.] For those kings first began to invade their country, and carried away the ten tribes, (2 Kings xv. 19. xvii. 3. 5, &c.) After which, calamities came upon Judah, their good king Josiah being slain, Manasseh carried to Babylon before the great captivity.
Nehemiah 9:33
Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly.
Nehemiah 9:34
Neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept thy law, nor hearkened unto thy com* mandments, and the testimonies wherewith thou didst testify against them.
Nehemiah 9:35
For 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 before them, neither turned they from their wicked works.] In these three verses they acknowledge the justice of God, in all the punishments he had inflicted on them> though heavy, and of long continuance. For from the highest to the lowest they had done all wickedly, and would not be reclaimed.
Nehemiah 9:36
Behold, we are servants this day; and for the land that thou gavest unto our fathers, to eat the fmit thereof, and the good thereof, behold, we ate servants in it. God had, indeed, marvellously restored them to their own country; yet the marks of his displeasure for their sins still remained very visible: for they were but servants unto others, riot owners and proprietors of the lands which God had given to their fathers. Out of which they had been cast for their wickedness, and had not yet perfectly recovered it,, but laboured for their lords and masters.
Nehemiah 9:37
And if yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins. For their land paid a great tribute to the kings of Persia, out of the profit of it, (Ezravi.8. vii.24. and in this book, chap. v. 4.) Also they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure.] For their bodies were liable to be pressed to serve in the king’s wars, or in his works; and their cattle subject to them, when they had occasion to send post about the king’s business. And we are in great distress.] Though they were permitted to live by their own laws (as we read in the book of