“So now today we are slaves in the land of plenty that you gave our ancestors for their enjoyment! We are slaves here in this good land.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Behold, we are servants today, and as for the land that you gave to our fathers to eat its fruit and its good, behold, we are servants in it.
- KJV Behold, we are servants this day, and for the land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we are servants in it:
- BSB So here we are today as slaves in the land You gave our fathers to enjoy its fruit and goodness—here we are as slaves!
- NKJV “Here we are, servants today! And the land that You gave to our fathers, To eat its fruit and its bounty, Here we are, servants in it!
- NASB “Behold, we are slaves today, And as for the land which You gave to our fathers to eat its fruit and its bounty, Behold, we are slaves on it.
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 they are now servants in the very land God gave their fathers. It matters because it names their painful condition of subjection despite living in the promised land.
Overview
Though restored to the land, the people are 'servants' under Persian rule, eating its fruit yet not free. Their bondage is the bitter consequence of generations of sin. This honest lament of unredeemed servitude heightens longing for true freedom, which Christ alone provides, freeing his people from the deeper slavery of sin (John 8:34-36).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- Ezra 9:9For we are bondservants; yet our God has not forsaken us in our bondage, but has extended loving kindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to revive us, to set up the house of our God, and to repair its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.
- Deut 28:48therefore you will serve your enemies whom Yahweh sends against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in lack of all things. He will put an iron yoke on your neck, until he has destroyed you.
- 2 Chr 12:8Nevertheless they will be his servants, that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 9:36 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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