Nehemiah 9:15-18

9:15 You provided bread from heaven for them in their time of hunger, and you brought forth water from the rock for them in their time of thirst. You told them to enter in order to possess the land that you had sworn ¹  to give them.

9:16 “But they – our ancestors ²  – behaved presumptuously; they rebelled ³  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. ⁴  But you are a God of forgiveness, merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and unfailing in your loyal love. ⁵  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 ⁶  blasphemies.

¹ tn Heb “had lifted your hand.”

² tn Heb “and our fathers.” The vav is explicative.

³ tn Heb “they stiffened their neck” (so also in the following verse).

³ tc The present translation follows a few medieval Hebrew MSS and the LXX in reading בְּמִצְרָיִם (bÿmitsrayim, “in Egypt”; so also NAB, NASB, NRSV, TEV, NLT) rather than the MT reading בְּמִרְיָם (bÿmiryam, “in their rebellion”).

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.

⁴ tn Heb “great.”