Discovery BoxNehemiah 9:16-21 
Context9:16 “But they – our ancestors 1 – behaved presumptuously; they rebelled 2 and did not obey your commandments. 9:17 They refused to obey and did not recall your miracles that you had performed among them. Instead, they rebelled and appointed a leader to return to their bondage in Egypt. 3 But you are a God of forgiveness, merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and unfailing in your loyal love. 4 You did not abandon them, 9:18 even when they made a cast image of a calf for themselves and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up from Egypt,’ or when they committed atrocious 5 blasphemies.
9:19 “Due to your great compassion you did not abandon them in the desert. The pillar of cloud did not stop guiding them in the path by day, 6 nor did the pillar of fire stop illuminating for them by night the path on which they should travel. 9:20 You imparted your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths; you provided water for their thirst. 9:21 For forty years you sustained them. Even in the desert they never lacked anything. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.
1 tn Heb “and our fathers.” The vav is explicative.
2 tn Heb “they stiffened their neck” (so also in the following verse).
3 tc The present translation follows a few medieval Hebrew
4 tc The translation follows the Qere reading חֶסֶד (khesed, “loyal love”) rather than the Kethib reading וְחֶסֶד (vÿkhesed, “and loyal love”) of the MT.
5 tn Heb “great.”
6 tn Heb “did not turn from them by day to guide them in the path.”
