But they and our fathers became arrogant and stiff-necked and did not obey Your commandments. But they and our fathersThis phrase sets the stage by identifying the subjects of the verse—"they" refers to the Israelites, and "our fathers" points to their ancestors. The Hebrew word for "fathers" is "אָבוֹת" (avot), which often signifies not just immediate parents but the patriarchs and previous generations. This acknowledgment of generational sin is a recurring theme in the Old Testament, emphasizing the continuity of disobedience and the need for repentance. Historically, this reflects the Israelites' repeated cycle of rebellion and return to God, as seen throughout the books of Judges and Kings. became arrogant
The Hebrew root for "arrogant" is "זִיד" (zid), which conveys a sense of pride and presumption. This arrogance is not merely a personal failing but a spiritual one, as it represents a turning away from reliance on God. In the biblical context, arrogance often leads to downfall, as seen in the accounts of figures like Pharaoh in Exodus. The Israelites' arrogance is a reminder of the dangers of self-reliance and the importance of humility before God. and stiff-necked
The term "stiff-necked" is translated from the Hebrew "קְשֵׁה־עֹרֶף" (qesheh-oref), literally meaning "hard of neck." This metaphor describes stubbornness and an unwillingness to submit to God's will, akin to an ox that refuses to be guided by the yoke. This imagery is powerful in the agrarian society of ancient Israel, where such behavior in animals would be seen as both frustrating and counterproductive. Scripturally, this term is used to describe the Israelites' resistance to God's guidance, as seen in Exodus 32:9 and Deuteronomy 9:6. and did not obey
The Hebrew word for "obey" is "שָׁמַע" (shama), which means to hear or listen with the intent to act. In the biblical sense, obedience is not just about hearing God's commandments but responding to them with action. The failure to obey is a central theme in the narrative of Israel, highlighting the consequences of ignoring God's laws. This disobedience is often linked to the Israelites' suffering and exile, serving as a cautionary tale for future generations. Your commandments
The term "commandments" comes from the Hebrew "מִצְוֹתֶיךָ" (mitzvot), referring to the laws and decrees given by God. These commandments are not arbitrary rules but are designed to guide the Israelites in living a life that is pleasing to God and beneficial to the community. The emphasis on "Your" underscores the divine origin of these laws, distinguishing them from human-made rules. In the broader biblical narrative, adherence to God's commandments is portrayed as the path to blessing and prosperity, while disobedience leads to judgment and hardship. Persons / Places / Events 1. NehemiahA Jewish leader who played a crucial role in the rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls and the spiritual renewal of the people. He is known for his leadership and dedication to God's commandments. 2. The IsraelitesThe people of God who were delivered from Egypt but often fell into disobedience and rebellion against God's commandments. 3. JerusalemThe city where Nehemiah led the rebuilding efforts and where the Israelites gathered to confess their sins and renew their covenant with God. 4. The WildernessThe place where the Israelites wandered for 40 years due to their disobedience and lack of faith in God's promises. 5. The CovenantThe agreement between God and the Israelites, which included the commandments that they were to follow as His chosen people. Teaching Points The Danger of Pride and ArrogancePride leads to a hardened heart that resists God's commandments. We must guard against arrogance and remain humble before God. The Importance of ObedienceObedience to God's commandments is crucial for a faithful relationship with Him. Disobedience leads to spiritual downfall and separation from God. Learning from the PastThe history of the Israelites serves as a warning and a lesson. We should learn from their mistakes and strive to remain faithful to God. The Need for RepentanceWhen we recognize our disobedience, we must turn back to God in repentance, seeking His forgiveness and guidance. God's Faithfulness Despite Human FailureDespite our failures, God remains faithful. His mercy and grace are available to those who return to Him with a contrite heart. Bible Study Questions 1. How does the pride and arrogance of the Israelites in Nehemiah 9:16 reflect in our own lives today? 2. What are some specific commandments of God that we struggle to obey, and how can we overcome these challenges? 3. In what ways can we learn from the past mistakes of the Israelites to improve our spiritual walk with God? 4. How does the concept of being "stiff-necked" manifest in modern Christian communities, and what steps can we take to address it? 5. How can we rely on God's faithfulness and mercy when we find ourselves in a cycle of disobedience and repentance? Connections to Other Scriptures Exodus 32The incident of the golden calf, where the Israelites quickly turned away from God's commandments, exemplifying their stiff-necked nature. Deuteronomy 9Moses recounts the stubbornness of the Israelites and their repeated disobedience, highlighting the need for humility and repentance. Psalm 78A historical psalm that reflects on the repeated failures and rebellions of the Israelites, yet also on God's enduring mercy and faithfulness. Acts 7Stephen's speech before the Sanhedrin, where he accuses the Jewish leaders of being stiff-necked, just like their ancestors, resisting the Holy Spirit. People Abram, Amorites, Bani, Bunni, Canaanites, Chenani, Egyptians, Ezra, Girgashite, Girgashites, Hashabniah, Hittites, Hodiah, Hodijah, Israelites, Jebusites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Levites, Og, Perizzites, Pethahiah, Pharaoh, Shebaniah, Sherebiah, SihonPlaces Assyria, Bashan, Egypt, Gate of Ephraim, Heshbon, Mount Sinai, Red Sea, UrTopics Acted, Arrogant, Arrogantly, Attention, Commandments, Commands, Dealt, Didn't, Fathers, Harden, Hardened, Hearkened, Listen, Neck, Necked, Necks, Obey, Orders, Presumptuously, Pride, Proudly, Stiff, Stiffened, StubbornDictionary of Bible Themes Nehemiah 9:16 6200 imperfection, influence
8764 forgetting God
8805 pride, results
8822 self-justification Nehemiah 9:16-17 1095 God, patience of
5793 arrogance
6245 stubbornness
6653 forgiveness, divine
8723 doubt, results of
8763 forgetting
8836 unbelief, response Nehemiah 9:16-18 1025 God, anger of
4618 calf Nehemiah 9:16-20 6667 grace, in OT Nehemiah 9:16-29 5170 neck Nehemiah 9:16-31 6223 rebellion, of Israel Library The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength. Neh 9:10
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John Newton—Olney HymnsQuestions About the Nature and Perpetuity of the Seventh-Day Sabbath.
AND PROOF, THAT THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK IS THE TRUE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. BY JOHN BUNYAN. 'The Son of man is lord also of the Sabbath day.' London: Printed for Nath, Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultry, 1685. EDITOR'S ADVERTISEMENT. All our inquiries into divine commands are required to be made personally, solemnly, prayerful. To 'prove all things,' and 'hold fast' and obey 'that which is good,' is a precept, equally binding upon the clown, as it is upon the philosopher. Satisfied from our observations …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 Ten Reasons Demonstrating the Commandment of the Sabbath to be Moral.
1. Because all the reasons of this commandment are moral and perpetual; and God has bound us to the obedience of this commandment with more forcible reasons than to any of the rest--First, because he foresaw that irreligious men would either more carelessly neglect, or more boldly break this commandment than any other; secondly, because that in the practice of this commandment the keeping of all the other consists; which makes God so often complain that all his worship is neglected or overthrown, …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety The "Fraternity" of Pharisees
To realise the state of religious society at the time of our Lord, the fact that the Pharisees were a regular "order," and that there were many such "fraternities," in great measure the outcome of the original Pharisees, must always be kept in view. For the New Testament simply transports us among contemporary scenes and actors, taking the then existent state of things, so to speak, for granted. But the fact referred to explains many seemingly strange circumstances, and casts fresh light upon all. …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life Fragrant Spices from the Mountains of Myrrh. "Thou Art all Fair, My Love; There is no Spot in Thee. " --Song of Solomon iv. 7.
FRAGRANT SPICES FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF MYRRH. HOW marvellous are these words! "Thou art all fair, My love; there is no spot in thee." The glorious Bridegroom is charmed with His spouse, and sings soft canticles of admiration. When the bride extols her Lord there is no wonder, for He deserves it well, and in Him there is room for praise without possibility of flattery. But does He who is wiser than Solomon condescend to praise this sunburnt Shulamite? Tis even so, for these are His own words, and were …
Charles Hadden Spurgeon—Till He Come The Personality of the Holy Spirit.
Before one can correctly understand the work of the Holy Spirit, he must first of all know the Spirit Himself. A frequent source of error and fanaticism about the work of the Holy Spirit is the attempt to study and understand His work without first of all coming to know Him as a Person. It is of the highest importance from the standpoint of worship that we decide whether the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person, worthy to receive our adoration, our faith, our love, and our entire surrender to Himself, …
R. A. Torrey—The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit The Early Life of Malachy. Having Been Admitted to Holy Orders He Associates with Malchus
[Sidenote: 1095.] 1. Our Malachy, born in Ireland,[134] of a barbarous people, was brought up there, and there received his education. But from the barbarism of his birth he contracted no taint, any more than the fishes of the sea from their native salt. But how delightful to reflect, that uncultured barbarism should have produced for us so worthy[135] a fellow-citizen with the saints and member of the household of God.[136] He who brings honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock[137] …
H. J. Lawlor—St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh The Prophecy of Obadiah.
We need not enter into details regarding the question as to the time when the prophet wrote. By a thorough argumentation, Caspari has proved, that he occupies his right position in the Canon, and hence belongs to the earliest age of written prophecy, i.e., to the time of Jeroboam II. and Uzziah. As bearing conclusively against those who would assign to him a far later date, viz., the time of the exile, there is not only the indirect testimony borne by the place which this prophecy occupies in …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament The Preface to the Commandments
And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God,' &c. Exod 20: 1, 2. What is the preface to the Ten Commandments? The preface to the Ten Commandments is, I am the Lord thy God.' The preface to the preface is, God spake all these words, saying,' &c. This is like the sounding of a trumpet before a solemn proclamation. Other parts of the Bible are said to be uttered by the mouth of the holy prophets (Luke 1: 70), but here God spake in his own person. How are we to understand that, God spake, …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments Of Immediate Revelation.
Of Immediate Revelation. [29] Seeing no man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son revealeth him; and seeing the revelation of the Son is in and by the Spirit; therefore the testimony of the Spirit is that alone by which the true knowledge of God hath been, is, and can be only revealed; who as, by the moving of his own Spirit, he disposed the chaos of this world into that wonderful order in which it was in the beginning, and created man a living soul, to rule and govern it, so by …
Robert Barclay—Theses Theologicae and An Apology for the True Christian Divinity Influences that Gave Rise to the Priestly Laws and Histories
[Sidenote: Influences in the exile that produced written ceremonial laws] The Babylonian exile gave a great opportunity and incentive to the further development of written law. While the temple stood, the ceremonial rites and customs received constant illustration, and were transmitted directly from father to son in the priestly families. Hence, there was little need of writing them down. But when most of the priests were carried captive to Babylonia, as in 597 B.C., and ten years later the temple …
Charles Foster Kent—The Origin & Permanent Value of the Old Testament The Holy War,
MADE BY SHADDAI UPON DIABOLUS, FOR THE REGAINING OF THE METROPOLIS OF THE WORLD; OR, THE LOSING AND TAKING AGAIN OF THE TOWN OF MANSOUL. THE AUTHOR OF 'THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.' 'I have used similitudes.'--Hosea 12:10. London: Printed for Dorman Newman, at the King's Arms in the Poultry; and Benjamin Alsop, at the Angel and Bible in the Poultry, 1682. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. Bunyan's account of the Holy War is indeed an extraordinary book, manifesting a degree of genius, research, and spiritual …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 Ezra-Nehemiah
Some of the most complicated problems in Hebrew history as well as in the literary criticism of the Old Testament gather about the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Apart from these books, all that we know of the origin and early history of Judaism is inferential. They are our only historical sources for that period; and if in them we have, as we seem to have, authentic memoirs, fragmentary though they be, written by the two men who, more than any other, gave permanent shape and direction to Judaism, then …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Nehemiah 9:16 NIVNehemiah 9:16 NLTNehemiah 9:16 ESVNehemiah 9:16 NASBNehemiah 9:16 KJV
Nehemiah 9:16 Commentaries
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