Did not your fathers do thus, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Yet you bring added wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.”
Parallel translations
- WEB Didn’t your fathers do thus, and didn’t our God bring all this evil on us, and on this city? Yet you bring more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.”
- KJV Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath.
- BSB Did not your forefathers do the same things, so that our God brought all this disaster on us and on this city? And now you are rekindling His wrath against Israel by profaning the Sabbath!”
- NASB Did your fathers not do the same, so that our God brought on us and on this city all this trouble? Yet you are adding to the wrath against Israel by profaning the Sabbath.”
- NLT “Wasn’t it just this sort of thing that your ancestors did that caused our God to bring all this trouble upon us and our city? Now you are bringing even more wrath upon Israel by permitting the Sabbath to be desecrated in this way!”
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
Nehemiah reminded them that their fathers' Sabbath-breaking brought God's wrath, warning they were inviting more. It matters because history's judgments call God's people to repentance, not repetition.
Overview
Nehemiah pointed to the exile as the fruit of past disobedience, warning that continued profaning would bring greater wrath. He grounds his appeal in the lessons of God's dealings with their ancestors. The sober reminder that sin brings judgment magnifies the grace of the gospel, where the wrath we deserve was borne by Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Jer 17:21–23Yahweh says, “Be careful, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;
- Lev 26:18“‘If you in spite of these things will not listen to me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins.
- Lev 26:28then I will walk contrary to you in wrath. I will also chastise you seven times for your sins.
- Jer 44:9Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives which they committed in the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem?
- Jer 17:27But if you will not listen to me to make the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.”’”
- Num 32:14“Behold, you have risen up in your fathers’ place, an increase of sinful men, to increase the fierce anger of Yahweh toward Israel.
- Zech 1:4–6Don’t you be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: Yahweh of Armies says, ‘Return now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings;’ but they did not hear, nor listen to me, says Yahweh.
- Josh 22:17–18Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves to this day, although there came a plague on the congregation of Yahweh,
- Ezra 9:13–15“After all that has come on us for our evil deeds, and for our great guilt, since you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such a remnant,
- Ezek 23:26They will also strip you of your clothes, and take away your beautiful jewels.
- Ezek 23:8She hasn’t left her prostitution since leaving Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her. They carressed her youthful nipples; and they poured out their prostitution on her.
- Jer 44:22Thus Yahweh could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which you have committed; therefore your land has become a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is today.
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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 13:18 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.