Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly:
Parallel translations
- WEB However you are just in all that has come on us; for you have dealt truly, but we have done wickedly.
- BSB You are just in all that has befallen us, because You have acted faithfully, while we have acted wickedly.
- NKJV However You are just in all that has befallen us; For You have dealt faithfully, But we have done wickedly.
- NASB “However, You are righteous in everything that has happened to us; For You have dealt faithfully, but we have acted wickedly.
- NLT Every time you punished us you were being just. We have sinned greatly, and you gave us only what we deserved.
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
They confess that God is just in all that has befallen them, for he acted faithfully while they did wickedly. It matters because true repentance vindicates God and accepts blame.
Overview
The people declare God righteous in his judgments and themselves guilty, a key mark of genuine confession. They do not accuse God but justify him and condemn their own sin. This honest acknowledgment of guilt and God's justice is exactly the disposition the gospel meets with grace, as God justifies the ungodly through Christ (Romans 3:26).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Dan 9:5–14We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:
- Gen 18:25That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?
- Ps 106:6We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.
- Job 34:23For he will not lay upon man more than right; that he should enter into judgment with God.
- Ps 145:17The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.
- Jer 12:1Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?
- Lam 1:18The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.
- Job 33:27He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not;
- Ps 119:137Righteous art thou, O LORD, and upright are thy judgments.
- Lev 26:40–41If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 9:33 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.