Bible Commentary - Nehemiah 9

In this chapter, the people observe a day of fasting and the Levites stand and recite the history of Israel from Abram to the present day.

To me I think this is a very interesting chapter.  In verse 1 it tells us that this day of fasting occurred on the 24th day of the month, while the festival of Sukkot in the previous chapter ended on the 8th day.  So it’s a couple weeks later, but the general mood of the people is still directed towards religious observation.

In the previous chapter, verses 7-8 of that chapter told us that the priests and Levites were translating and interpreting the text to explain it to the people.  A big part of the scriptures is recounting the history of Israel, and in this chapter we get a paraphrase of what the priests said when they recounted that history.

The reason why I find this so interesting is because it tells us, in their own words, how the people of Nehemiah’s time remembered their own history and how they viewed themselves.  We can look for differences between the priests’ account here and what we read in the biblical histories to see if they are emphasizing anything or leaving anything out from their retelling.  It gives us an opportunity to study their self-perception; the previous books of the bible (Genesis, Judges, Samuel, etc) show us what the people of Israel thought about their own history while it was happening, and this chapter shows us what the people of Jerusalem think about their history as they reflect upon it retrospectively.

I see two major omissions in this passage.  The first is it omits the story of the generation that died in the wilderness.  The priests mention that Israel rebelled against God, but do not mention how God punished them by destroying a generation.  Verses in 18-21 emphasize that while Israel sinned against God, God “did not forsake” them and provided for Israel during their wandering years.  This is true, but it is a selective truth.  They are cherry-picking God’s forgiveness of Israel (which was real) but leaving out the many times that God punished Israel (which was also real).

The second major omission is David and Solomon.  Or perhaps we could generalize and say “the good kings”.  Verses 27-30 accurately describe the Judges period, when Israel sinned, was oppressed, cried out to God and were delivered.  Over and over and over again.  However, particularly during the reigns of David and to a lesser extent Solomon, the text in Samuel strongly emphasizes David’s purity of heart and devotion, and the people were devoted to God as a byproduct.

The narrative in this chapter is constructed as if Israel were sinning over and over and never had any good moments.  Again this seems like a selective truth; while the priests are not saying anything that couldn’t be supported by the historical texts, they are leaving out the parts of the history that contradict the ideas they are trying to express.

It would not have supported their point if the priests had said, “Israel sinned most of the time, but here are a couple exceptions when our fathers were faithful”.  Instead, the narrative we see is “Israel sinned continuously, but God was faithful in spite of our sins.”

What is the point, then?  What do I believe the priests are trying to express to the people through their collective history?  The priests’ narrative presents Israel as being being rebellious against God, but God remaining merciful towards Israel.  God planted them in the promised land and did not forsake them.  Above all, we see God is faithful to Israel and faithful to the covenant.  Pointing out the instances of Israel’s faithfulness towards God would have diminished the impact of God’s faithfulness, because God’s faithfulness is emphasized in large part through its contrast with Israel’s unfaithfulness.

We see Israel being planted in a good land and “growing fat” (v. 25).  Whenever Israel becomes fat and content, “they did evil before you” (v. 28).  Even though God “delivered them into the hands of their oppressors” (v. 27), he “bore with them for many years” (v. 30) and “did not make an end of them” (v. 31).

To summarize, I think there are three core points in this story.  In no particular order, the first point is that Israel was weak and poor, but when God blessed them they became arrogant and rebelled against him.  The second is that God is reaching out to his people over and over while the people reject him over and over.  The third is a contrast between the faithful and compassionate God who remains true to Israel, while Israel is faithless and turns away from God continually.

I mention these points because I believe that all three of these points can be found in the prophetic literature (particularly Isaiah and Jeremiah and possibly some of the minor prophets).  Since many of these prophets predate Nehemiah, we can infer that Nehemiah was influenced by the prophets and not the other way around.  Through this we can see how the prophetic literature has influenced religious thought in Nehemiah’s generation.  To reiterate, I think this theology is well-based in the earlier historical texts, so I don’t think there is anything dishonest in the priests’ speech here.  Instead, I think it represents a reformulation of their history.

It’s similar to how Chronicles is a reformulation of Kings; even though both books describes the same events without any major contradictions, the two texts have significant differences in their focus, which reflect the theologies of their respective authors.  This chapter in Nehemiah is the same way: it describes the same events as Genesis, etc. without contradiction, but with a different tone from the prior text.  I personally believe that is mostly because Nehemiah assimilated the prophetic ideology of Isaiah, Jeremiah and others, which I described in the three core points mentioned above.

Lastly, as a minor point, verse 2 casually tells us that the Israelites separated themselves from foreigners, which is funny because this was a major focus for Ezra, consuming two full chapters, and yet here it is described in exactly one verse.

The chapter concludes in v. 38 with “an agreement” the people are making with each other and with God.  In the next chapter, we will learn about the contents of this agreement.