Nehemiah 9:31

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Nevertheless in your manifold mercies you did not make a full end of them, nor forsake them; for you are a gracious and merciful God.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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חַנּ֥וּן

channûwn

H2587

“gracious”

Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 13× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Exodus 22:27

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H2603

TWOT: TWOT- 694d

gracious

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

12: words
11: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is חַנּ֥וּן gracious H2587 — appearing just 13 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

חַנּ֥וּן gracious H2587 occurs in 13 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
3 nouns
3 adjectives
1 pronoun
1 conjunction
2 particles

Verb forms

עֲשִׂיתָ֥ם Qal · Perfect
עֲזַבְתָּ֑ם Qal · Perfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

לֹֽא not H3808 ×2

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Nehemiah 9:31 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Lamentations 3:22 [It is of] Yahweh's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn't fail.
Exodus 34:6–7 Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, "Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth,
Nehemiah 9:17 and refused to obey, neither were mindful of your wonders that you did among them, but hardened their neck, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage. But you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and didn't forsake them.
Psalms 103:8–9 Yahweh is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness.
Jeremiah 4:27 For thus says Yahweh, The whole land shall be a desolation; yet will I not make a full end.
Jeremiah 5:18 But even in those days, says Yahweh, I will not make a full end with you.
Psalms 145:8–9 Yahweh is gracious, merciful, Slow to anger, and of great loving kindness.
Jeremiah 5:10 Go up on her walls, and destroy; but don't make a full end: take away her branches; for they are not Yahweh's.

2 Kings 13:23 But Yahweh was gracious to them, and had compassion on them, and had respect to them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, neither cast he them from his presence as yet.
2 Chronicles 30:9 For if you turn again to Yahweh, your brothers and your children shall find compassion before those who led them captive, and shall come again into this land: for Yahweh your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.
Ezekiel 14:22–23 Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be carried forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth to you, and you shall see their way and their doings; and you shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought on Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought on it.
Daniel 9:9 To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness; for we have rebelled against him;

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Nehemiah 9:31 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וּֽבְרַחֲמֶ֧יךָ הָרַבִּ֛ים לֹֽא עֲשִׂיתָ֥ם כָּלָ֖ה וְלֹ֣א עֲזַבְתָּ֑ם כִּ֛י אֵֽל חַנּ֥וּן וְרַח֖וּם אָֽתָּה

Nevertheless in your manifold mercies you did not make a full end of them, nor forsake them; for you are a gracious and merciful God.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Structure differs

The Septuagint has no separate book of Nehemiah. Its Greek text is the second half of Esdras B (2 Esdras), chapters 11–23; Ezra is the first half (1–10).

A verse-for-verse comparison isn’t shown here because the chapters and verses don’t line up. Switch to the LXX edition with the MT / LXX toggle above to read the Greek directly.

On this verse, The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from a public-domain English Septuagint. How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Commentary

Notes on Nehemiah 9:31 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Neh 9:31 Nevertheless for thy great mercies’ sake thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou [art] a gracious and merciful God.

Ver. 31. Nevertheless for thy great mercies’ sake] Man’s perverseness cannot interrupt the course of God’s goodness. In the midst of judgment he remembereth mercy, which beareth the same proportion to his judgment which seven (a complete number) hath to a unity.

Thou didst not utterly consume them] God will repent for his people, when he seeth their power is gone, Deu 32:36, and be jealous with a great jealousy when the enemy goes beyond his commission, Zec 1:14-15.

For thou art a gracious and merciful God] And this is most seen when misery weighs down, and nothing but mercy turneth the scale.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joseph Benson's Commentary

Neh 9:31. Nevertheless, thou didst not utterly consume them — But didst leave a remnant of the poorer people in the land, and show favour to the captives in Babylon. For thou art a gracious and merciful God — To which alone they owed their preservation from utter destruction.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

31. for thy great mercies’ sake] R.V. in thy manifold mercies. The emphasis on the variety of the mercy even more than on its magnitude. Cf. Lam_3:22-23, ‘It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning.’

thou didst not utterly consume them] R.V. thou didst not make a full end of them (LXX. οὐκ ἐποίησας αὐτούς συντέλειαν. Vulg. ‘non fecisti eos in consumptionem.’ For the phrase see Jer_4:17; Jer_5:10; Jer_5:18; Jer_46:28; Eze_20:17. The promise that though grievously humbled, Israel should not be utterly consumed, ever animated the courage of the prophets, cf. Lev_26:44, ‘And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them;’ Isa_6:13, ‘As a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remaineth, when they are felled.’

gracious and merciful] The same words in Heb. as Neh_9:17 ‘gracious and full of compassion.’

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

Nevertheless, for thy great mercies' sake, For the displaying of that, and the glorifying of it, which is so large and exceeding abundant:

thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; some were left in the land, and those that were carried captive found favour in the eyes of those that carried them away, and were suffered to live, and many of them now had returned to their own land:

for thou art a gracious and merciful God; of which they had abundant proof and evidence.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Nehemiah, in the Historical, opens this verse with 12 words (11 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is channûwn (“gracious”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “gracious” (channûwn) shape what this verse is saying?
Exodus 22:27 shares the word «gracious» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“not” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
The verb «עֲשִׂיתָ֥ם» is Qal Perfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Joseph Benson's Commentary read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

These translations choose different wording for 14 words in this verse.
“not” occurs 2× in this single verse.
11 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 12 words in this verse.