Nehemiah 9:33

9:4-38 The summary of their prayers we have here upon record. Much more, no doubt, was said. Whatever ability we have to do any thing in the way of duty, we are to serve and glorify God according to the utmost of it. When confessing our sins, it is good to notice the mercies of God, that we may be the more humbled and ashamed. The dealings of the Lord showed his goodness and long-suffering, and the hardness of their hearts. The testimony of the prophets was the testimony of the Spirit in the prophets, and it was the Spirit of Christ in them. They spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, and what they said is to be received accordingly. The result was, wonder at the Lord's mercies, and the feeling that sin had brought them to their present state, from which nothing but unmerited love could rescue them. And is not their conduct a specimen of human nature? Let us study the history of our land, and our own history. Let us recollect our advantages from childhood, and ask what were our first returns? Let us frequently do so, that we may be kept humble, thankful, and watchful. Let all remember that pride and obstinacy are sins which ruin the soul. But it is often as hard to persuade the broken-hearted to hope, as formerly it was to bring them to fear. Is this thy case? Behold this sweet promise, A God ready to pardon!

Howbeit, thou art just in all that is brought upon us,.... They own the justice of God, could not complain of any wrong done them; and had he shown them no mercy at all, it was but what they deserved: for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly; he had done according to the truth of his word of promise, he had faithfully kept it, but they had transgressed his righteous law.

33 . just ] The same epithet as that rendered ‘righteous’ (c̣addîq) in Nehemiah 9:8 . See also Ezra 9:15 . brought ] R.V. come. done right ] R.V. dealt truly. Literally ‘truth’ (LXX. ἀλήθειαν . Vulg. ‘veritatem’), i.e. Thou hast fulfilled thy word both in blessing and punishment: but we have been unfaithful to the covenant. Cf. Daniel 9:14 , ‘For the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth, and we have not obeyed his voice.’ The pronoun ‘we’ is emphatic; the speakers pass from reference to their forefathers, in order to accept for themselves the responsibility of association with the nation’s guilt. Nehemiah 9:33

32. Now therefore, our God … who keepest covenant and mercy—God's fidelity to His covenant is prominently acknowledged, and well it might; for their whole national history bore testimony to it. But as this could afford them little ground of comfort or of hope while they were so painfully conscious of having violated it, they were driven to seek refuge in the riches of divine grace; and hence the peculiar style of invocation here adopted: "Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy."

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.

15 . The prayer ends in expression of complete surrender. There is no excuse to plead. The nation stands in its sin in the presence of the perfect God, and awaits the sentence of ‘righteousness’. O Lord God of Israel ] R.V. O LORD, the God of Israel. See on Ezra 1:3 . The prayer had begun ‘O my God’ ( Ezra 9:6 ). It ends, O Lord the God of Israel . The thought of his nation overmastered the supplicant. thou art righteous ] This must not be softened down as if it were ‘thou art gracious’. The words are an acknowledgement of the perfect justice of God’s dealings with Israel in the past. The next sentence ‘for we are left a remnant’ is not uttered in gratitude for the mercy which spared ‘a remnant’, but is added to express the greatness of the catastrophe, which had carried off the whole nation except ‘a remnant’. And yet the visitation had been just. The prayer of Ezra (?) in Nehemiah 9 has a very similar phrase, Nehemiah 9:33 ‘Howbeit thou art just (çaddîq) in all that is come upon us; for thou hast done truly, but we have done wickedly’. Thou art righteous (çaddîq), and we who are left ‘a remnant’ have failed to profit by the righteous judgement of the past. God is called ‘righteous’ in reference to the ‘fixed and unalterable rule of truth and goodness’. Cf. Nehemiah 9:8 ; 2 Chronicles 12:6 ; Psalm 119:137 ; Psalm 129:4 ; Psalm 145:7 . (See Cheyne on Psalm 7:17 .) as it is this day ] Cf. Ezra 9:7 . we are before thee ] i.e. arraigned as it were before thy judgement seat.

2. Princes. 3. Priests. 4. Prophets. 5. The Fathers, heads or chiefs of tribes and families. 6. The Common People. Those who disturb this natural order (for it subsists even in Britain) are enemies to the peace of the whole, whatever they may pretend to the contrary. NEHEMIAH 9: 33 However you are just in all that has come on us; for you have dealt truly, but we have done wickedly; NEHEMIAH 9: 34 neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept your law, nor listened to your commandments and your testimonies with which you testified against them.

call upon God to do them justice, Psalms 7:9, 17:1v., 18:21, 26:1v., 35:34, etc., yet those same persons at the same time humbly make confession of their sins, invoke God’s forgiveness and plead on his grace, Psalms 31:10, 11, 7:9, Nehemiah 1:6, 9:33, Daniel 9:5, 7, 18, etc. The righteousness of these pious is not a personal quality, but a property of the cause which they uphold; they have the right on their side, because they rely on God, deel II 197. 198. This trust in God is the essential thing which in the O. T. makes the righteous righteous; they believe in God, ‎‏‏האמין‎, Genesis 15:6, Exodus 14:31, 2 Chronicles 20:20, Jes. 28:16, Habakkuk 2:4, trust in him, ‎‏‏בטח‎, Psalms 4:6, 9:11, take refuge in him, ‎‏חסה‎, 91:14, 2 Kon. 18:6 etc. This faith is reckoned for righteousness, Genesis 15:6, just as elsewhere the keeping of God’s commandments is called righteousness, Deuteronomy 6:25, 24:13. Now that this subjective righteousness, which essentially consists in trust in God, is also a fruit of God’s grace and an operation of his Spirit, does not, from the nature of the case, come to light so clearly in the O. T. as yet. But nevertheless the data for this are not lacking either. Of a righteousness of one’s own there is never any mention in Israel; it is chosen notwithstanding its stubbornness, Deuteronomy 9:4-6. God is the source of all life and light, of all wisdom, power, salvation, Deut. unto thy name give honour, is the prayer of Israel’s pious, Psalms 115:1;