Nehemiah 9:34
What does Nehemiah 9:34 mean?
A plain-English look at Nehemiah 9:34 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Nehemiah 9:34 means
They specify that their kings, princes, priests, and fathers did not keep God’s Law or heed His commandments and testimonies. This acknowledges comprehensive leadership failure across generations. By naming these groups, the community resists minimizing guilt as the fault of a few. Those with responsibility to know, teach, and model obedience did not do so. The verse recognizes that national sin is often entrenched in institutions and leadership, shaping the people’s course. Confession must therefore be corporate and thorough. This honesty helps prevent repeating the same patterns, as the community will soon pledge renewed commitment under accountable leadership.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept thy law, nor hearkened unto thy commandments and thy testimonies wherewith thou didst testify against them.
KJV
King James Version · 1611Neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept thy law, nor hearkened unto thy commandments and thy testimonies, wherewith thou didst testify against them.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept thy law, nor hearkened unto thy commandments and thy testimonies wherewith thou didst testify against them.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949And our kings, our rulers, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law or given attention to your orders and your witness, with which you gave witness against them.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862and our kings, our heads, our priests, and our fathers, have not done Thy law, nor attended unto Thy commands, and to Thy testimonies, that Thou hast testified against them;
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept thy law, and have not minded thy commandments, and thy testimonies which thou hast testified among them.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890And our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers, have not performed thy law, nor hearkened unto thy commandments and thy testimonies, wherewith thou didst testify against them.
Context
Expanding on verse 33’s general confession, verse 34 focuses on leaders’ failures. Verse 35 will add that even at the height of blessing—“in their kingdom” and in the “large and fat land”—they did not serve God or turn from wicked works. The prayer is building a layered case: privilege did not produce faithfulness; therefore, present distress is just.
v.33Howbeit thou art just in all that is come upon us; for thou hast dealt truly, but we have done wickedly;
v.34This passage
v.35For they have not served thee in their kingdom, and in thy great goodness that thou gavest them, and in the large and fat land which thou gavest before them, neither turned they from their wicked works.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Nehemiah 9:30
Yet many years didst thou bear with them, and testifiedst against them by thy Spirit through thy prophets: yet would they not give ear: therefore gavest thou them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.
- 2 Kings 17:15
And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified unto them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the nations that were round about them, concerning whom Jehovah had charged them that they should not do like them.
- Jeremiah 29:19
because they have not hearkened to my words, saith Jehovah, wherewith I sent unto them my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but ye would not hear, saith Jehovah.
- 2 Kings 17:13
Yet Jehovah testified unto Israel, and unto Judah, by every prophet, and every seer, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.
- Deuteronomy 31:21
And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles are come upon them, that this song shall testify before them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed: for I know their imagination which they frame this day, before I have brought them into the land which I sware.
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