We have behaved corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, statutes, and ordinances that You gave Your servant Moses.
Parallel translations
- WEB We have dealt very corruptly against you, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances, which you commanded your servant Moses.
- KJV We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses.
- NKJV We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses.
- NASB We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses.
- NLT We have sinned terribly by not obeying the commands, decrees, and regulations that you gave us through your servant Moses.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
He confesses that Israel has acted corruptly, failing to keep the commandments, statutes, and ordinances given through Moses. The nation's suffering is traced to covenant disobedience.
Overview
Nehemiah names the specific failure: Israel had not obeyed the law God gave through Moses, breaking the covenant that defined them as His people. By acknowledging that the exile and ruin were just consequences of sin, he clears God of any wrong and casts the people on mercy alone. This honest reckoning with sin's seriousness prepares the way for grace, pointing forward to the obedience Christ rendered on behalf of a disobedient people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 21
- Dan 9:5–6we have sinned and done wrong. We have acted wickedly and rebelled. We have turned away from Your commandments and ordinances.
- Dan 9:11All Israel has transgressed Your law and turned away, refusing to obey Your voice; so the oath and the curse written in the Law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us, because we have sinned against You.
- Dan 9:13Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our iniquities and giving attention to Your truth.
- Ps 106:6We have sinned like our fathers; we have done wrong and acted wickedly.
- Hos 9:9They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah; He will remember their guilt; He will punish their sins.
- Ps 119:5–8Oh, that my ways were committed to keeping Your statutes!
- Deut 4:1Hear now, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live and may enter and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
- Deut 5:1Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances that I declare in your hearing this day. Learn them and observe them carefully.
- Rev 19:2For His judgments are true and just. He has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality. He has avenged the blood of His servants that was poured out by her hand.”
- Deut 28:14–15Do not turn aside to the right or to the left from any of the words I command you today, and do not go after other gods to serve them.
- Deut 6:1These are the commandments and statutes and ordinances that the LORD your God has instructed me to teach you to follow in the land that you are about to enter and possess,
- Mal 4:4“Remember the law of My servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances I commanded him for all Israel at Horeb.
- 2 Chr 25:4Yet he did not put their sons to death, but acted according to what is written in the Law, in the Book of Moses, where the LORD commanded: “Fathers must not be put to death for their children, and children must not be put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin.”
- Ezra 7:6this Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses, which the LORD, the God of Israel, had given. The king had granted Ezra all his requests, for the hand of the LORD his God was upon him.
- Deut 4:5See, I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the LORD my God has commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land that you are about to enter and possess.
- Zeph 3:7I said, ‘Surely you will fear Me and accept correction.’ Then her dwelling place would not be cut off despite all for which I punished her. But they rose early to corrupt all their deeds.
- Lev 27:34These are the commandments that the LORD gave to Moses for the Israelites on Mount Sinai.
- Ps 19:8–9The precepts of the LORD are right, bringing joy to the heart; the commandments of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
- 2 Chr 27:2And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Uzziah had done. In addition, he did not enter the temple of the LORD. But the people still behaved corruptly.
- 1 Kgs 2:3And keep the charge of the LORD your God to walk in His ways and to keep His statutes, commandments, ordinances, and decrees, as is written in the Law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you turn,
- Neh 9:29–35You admonished them to turn back to Your law, but they were arrogant and disobeyed Your commandments. They sinned against Your ordinances, by which a man will live if he practices them. They stubbornly shrugged their shoulders; they stiffened their necks and would not obey.
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Christ at the center
The rebuilt walls and renewed covenant community foreshadow the greater builder who gathers and secures a people for God, the one who declares 'I will build my church.'
How Nehemiah 1:7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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