The Promise of Restoration
(Nehemiah 1:1–11)

1“Now when all these things will have fallen over you, the blessing or the curse that I have set forth in your sight, and you will have been led to repentance in your heart among all the nations to which the Lord your God will have dispersed you, 2and when you will have returned to him, so as to obey his commandments, just as I have instructed you this day, with your sons, with your whole heart and with your whole soul, 3then the Lord your God will lead you away from your captivity, and he will take pity on you, and he will gather you again from all the nations to which he had dispersed you before. 4Even if you will have been scattered as far as the poles of the heavens, the Lord your God will retrieve you from there. 5And he will take you up and lead you into the land which your fathers had possessed, and you shall obtain it. And in blessing you, he will make you greater in number than your fathers ever were.

6The Lord your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your offspring, so that you may love the Lord your God with your entire heart and with your entire soul, so that you may be able to live. 7And he will turn all these curses upon your enemies, and upon those who hate and persecute you. 8But you shall return, and you shall listen to the voice of the Lord your God. And you shall carry out all the commandments which I am entrusting to you this day. 9And the Lord your God will cause you to abound in all the works of your hands, in the progeny of your womb, and in the fruit of your cattle, in the fertility of your land, and with an abundance of all things. For the Lord will return, so that he may rejoice over you in all good things, just as he rejoiced in your fathers: 10but only if you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and keep his precepts and ceremonies, which have been written in this law, and only if you return to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

The Choice of Life or Death

11This commandment, which I entrust to you today, is not high above you, nor has it been placed far away. 12Nor is it in heaven, so that you would be able to say, ‘Which of us can ascend to heaven, so as to carry it back to us, and so that we may hear it and fulfill it in deed?’ 13Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you would excuse yourself by saying, ‘Which of us is able to cross the sea, and to carry it back to us, so that we may be able to hear and to do what has been instructed?’ 14Instead, the word is near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may do it.

15Consider what I have set forth in your sight this day, life and good, or, on the opposite side, death and evil, 16so that you may love the Lord your God, and walk in his ways, and keep his commandments and ceremonies and judgments, and so that you may live, and he may multiply you and bless you in the land, which you shall enter in order to possess. 17But if your heart will have been turned aside, so that you are not willing to listen, and, having been deceived by error, you adore strange gods and serve them, 18then I predict to you this day that you will perish, and you will remain for only a short time in the land, for which you shall cross the Jordan, and which you shall enter in order to possess. 19I call heaven and earth as witnesses this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life, so that both you and your offspring may live, 20and so that you may love the Lord your God, and obey his voice, and cling to him, (for he is your life and the length of your days) and so that you may live in the land, about which the Lord swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give it to them.”