Nehemiah 1:9

The Promise. The appeal to this promise marks the crisis of the prayer.

if ye turn R.V. return. The word, as in Deuteronomy 30:2, is stronger than to -turn". It denotes a -return" from a wrong road. The back is turned upon the former wrong direction. Cf. Malachi 3:18.

and keep my commandments, and do them R.V. omits comma. These words contain the practical explanation of the -return." No distinction can really be drawn between -keeping" and -doing" the commandments. The words occur together with great frequency in Deuteronomy, both as -observe to do" and -observe (or keep) and do."

though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, &c. R.V. though your outcasts were in the uttermost part of the heaven, &c. This and the next clauses are clearly taken from Deuteronomy 30:4, where the same words (except for the use of the 2nd sing. for the 2nd plur.) occur. The term -your outcasts" does not occur with this usage elsewhere in the Pentateuch, while the exact phrase - inthe uttermost part of heaven" also only occurs there. The word -outcasts" may be illustrated from 2 Samuel 14:13-14; Isaiah 16:3-4; Isaiah 27:13; Isaiah 56:8; Jeremiah 30:17; Jeremiah 49:36, and -the uttermost part of heaven" from Deuteronomy 4:32 and Judges 7:11. But the occurrence here side by side of these two forms can only be accounted for on the supposition that Nehemiah has here in his thoughts the passage Deuteronomy 30:1-4.

On -gathering the outcasts" compare the title given to the Lord in Isaiah 56:8, -The Lord God which gathereth the outcasts of Israel."

and will bring them The promise to bring together -the outcasts" of Israel should be compared with the metaphor of the shepherd and the scattered sheep, in Ezekiel 34:11-18. See especially, Ezekiel 34:13, -And I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land."

unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there R.V., to cause my name to dwell there. This sentence is again characteristically Deuteronomic. The words, -the place which the Lord thy God shall choose," do not occur in the Pentateuch except in the book Deuteronomy, where they are found some 20 times. In five of these passages (Deuteronomy 12:11; Deuteronomy 14:23; Deuteronomy 16:6; Deuteronomy 16:11; Deuteronomy 26:2) the full phrase is found, -the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there," which Nehemiah here quotes.

That -the place" so designated is Jerusalem and the Temple at Jerusalem is beyond all doubt. This was the place of which God had said -My name shall be there" (1 Kings 8:29). At Shiloh God - caused his name to dwellat the first" (Jeremiah 7:12). But Shiloh passed away. And though Jerusalem for a time seemed threatened with a like fate (Jeremiah 7:12-15), the day came when the watchmen upon the hills of Ephraim cried, -Arise ye and let us go up to Zion unto the Lord our God" (Jeremiah 31:6).

The Hebrew verb -cause to dwell" is that from which came the late Hebrew word -Shechinah", applied to the visible manifestation in Glory of the Divine Presence.

The association of -the Name" with the Temple is very frequent in Chronicles (e.g. 1Ch 22:7-10; 1 Chronicles 22:19; 1 Chronicles 28:3; 1Ch 29:16; 2 Chronicles 2:1; 2Ch 2:4; 2 Chronicles 6:5-9; 2 Chronicles 6:20; 2Ch 6:33-34; 2 Chronicles 6:38; 2 Chronicles 7:16; 2Ch 7:20; 2 Chronicles 12:13; 2 Chronicles 20:8-9; 2 Chronicles 33:4; 2 Chronicles 33:7).