Nehemiah 9:33

Neh 9:33 Howbeit thou [art] just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly:

Ver. 33. Howbeit thou art just] So Mauricius, the emperor, justified God, when he saw his wife and children butchered before his eyes by the traitor Phocas, and knew that himself should be soon after stewed in his own broth; he cried out, Just art thou, O Lord, and just are all thy judgments. So did the noble Du Plessy, when he heard of the death of his only son slain in Holland; which so grieved his mother, that soon after she died.

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.

Neh_9:33

Howbeit, Thou art just in all that is brought upon us.

The miseries of life; their origin and remedy

The miseries of life have been a fruitful theme to writers in all ages. Some have endeavoured to engage us in their contemplation for a wise and good end. Others have taken occasion from them to dispute the wisdom, justice, and goodness of God. Such notions, thus derogatory from the providence of God, tend, even in the best of men, if not timely eradicated, to weaken those impressions of reverence and gratitude which are necessary to add warmth to devotion and vigour to virtue. The teaching of Scripture is, that God is not to be charged with disregard of His creation. He created man for happiness, and this happiness was forfeited by a breach of the conditions to which it was annexed. Physical and moral evil entered the world together. To avoid misery we must avoid sin. Consider--

I. How few of the evils of life can justly be ascribed to God. We must carefully distinguish that which is actually appointed by Him from that which is only permitted, or that which is the consequence of something done to ourselves, and could not be prevented but by the interruption of those general laws which we term the course of nature or the established order of the universe. If we examine all the afflictions of mind, body, and estate by this rule, we shall find God not otherwise accessory to them than as He works no miracles to prevent them, as He suffers men to be masters of themselves, and restrains them only by coercions applied to their reason.

1. In making an estimate of the miseries that arise from the disorders of the body, we must consider how many diseases proceed from our own laziness, intemperance, or negligence; how many the vices or follies of our ancestors have transmitted to us.

2. Nor are the disquietudes of the mind less frequently excited by ourselves.

(1) Pride is the general source of our infelicity.

(2) Immoderate desires.

(3) Undue solicitude about future events which gives rise to harassing fears and anxieties.

3. Poverty is not always the effect of wickedness--it may often be the effect of virtue; but it is not certain that poverty is an evil.

II. How far a general piety might exempt community from those evils. A community, in which virtue should generally prevail, of which every member should fear God with his whole heart and love his neighbour as himself, where every man should labour to make himself perfect even as his Father which is in heaven is perfect, would find these evils practically non-existant.

III. How much in the present corrupt state of the world particular men may, by the practice of the duties of religion, promote their own happiness. (John Taylor, LL. D.)

God has done right

I. Right as to wisdom. It is of great importance for us to know, and to feel, especially when tossed on the billows and enveloped in the darkness of some heavy affliction, that God is infinitely wise, and that His wisdom can and will conduct all the circumstances of His people to a happy issue. This is absolutely necessary to the enjoyment of anything like calm security amidst such scenes. It is so in the common affairs of life. The soldier trusts in the wisdom of his general, and is calm in battle. The sailor trusts in the wisdom of his captain, and is calm in the tempest. The traveller has confidence in the wisdom of his guide, and pursues his course in peaceful security. And so, if believers would enjoy a calm and cheerful assurance in fighting the battles, braving the storms, and pursuing the pilgrimage of their present probation, they must have a settled and solid repose in the infallible wisdom of God. And they must seek this, not so much from the deductions of human reason, or the better lights of their own experience in relation to providence, as from the operations of faith in the Scripture revelations of God and His government.

II. Right as to justice. Amidst the afflictions of life, not only must we recognise and trust the infinite wisdom of God, but we must endeavour, by the lights of revelation and experience, to reconcile the justice of God with the afflictions of the righteous, and thus justify the ways of God to men. Men who only look on the surface of things and events, and judge from that, often charge God with being rigorous, unjust, and unrighteous in the operations and issues of His providence. All temporal sufferings are the righteous consequence of original or actual sin, and are frequently merited by the best of men. None can affirm that they are free from human frailties and sinful defects, and therefore they have no right to complain of the punishment of their sins. Our afflictions, generally, fall far below the guilt which we have contracted. The time is hastening on when the wisdom and justice of providence will be convincingly evident to all.

III. Right as to goodness. Thou art good, and doest good. Such was the testimony of the psalmist; such is the uniform testimony of revelation; and such, notwithstanding its mysteries, is the acknowledgment of universal providence. And it is very necessary for us to be convinced of this, and live under the perpetual and growing influence of it, amidst the tribulations of life. Else how can we be calm, secure, and happy?

1. Strive to understand God in your afflictions. From the absence of this intelligent view of Gods providence in affliction the greatest mischief often springs. Ignorance here, as everywhere else, is ever attended by distrust, fear, dissatisfaction, and wasting anxiety; while, on the other hand, intelligence produces confidence, serenity, contentedness, and a delightful peace and repose.

2. Learn to avoid a spirit of envy and murmuring. If God acts wisely, justly, and mercifully, in often permitting the wicked to live and prosper and the righteous to fall into great afflictions, then resign yourselves to His will, be satisfied with the dispensations of His hand, envy not the condition of others, neither murmur at your own. Consider well the folly, vanity, and misery of sinful prosperity, which rather needs your pity than your envy.

3. Learn to be firm and faithful in the service and cause of God. Afflictions have driven many from Christ and His kingdom. (W. Gregory.)

Gods proceedings in His justice sometimes inexplicable

Take a straight stick and put it into the water, then it will seem crooked; why? because we look upon it through two mediums, air and water. There lies the deceptio visus; thence it is that we cannot discern aright. Thus the proceedings of God in His justice, which in themselves are straight, without the least obliquity, seem unto us crooked. That wicked men should prosper, and good men be afflicted; that the Israelites should make the bricks, and the Egyptians dwell in the houses; that servants should ride on horseback, and princes go on foot--these are things that make the best Christians stagger in their judgments. And why? but because they look upon Gods proceedings through a double medium of flesh and spirit, that so all things seem to go cross, though indeed they go right enough. And hence it is that Gods proceedings in His justice are not so well discerned, the eyes of man alone being not competent judges thereof. (J. Spencer.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He confesseth that all these things came to them justly for their sins, but he appealeth from God’s justice to his mercies.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

33. just] The same epithet as that rendered ‘righteous’ (c̣addîq) in Neh_9:8. See also Ezr_9:15.

brought] R.V. come.

done right] R.V. dealt truly. Literally ‘truth’ (LXX. ἀλήθειαν. Vulg. ‘veritatem’), i.e. Thou hast fulfilled thy word both in blessing and punishment: but we have been unfaithful to the covenant. Cf. Dan_9:14, ‘For the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth, and we have not obeyed his voice.’ The pronoun ‘we’ is emphatic; the speakers pass from reference to their forefathers, in order to accept for themselves the responsibility of association with the nation’s guilt.

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.

Howbeit, thou art just in all that is brought upon us,.... They own the justice of God, could not complain of any wrong done them; and had he shown them no mercy at all, it was but what they deserved:

for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly; he had done according to the truth of his word of promise, he had faithfully kept it, but they had transgressed his righteous law.

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

Truth, fulfilled thy promises. We have broken the covenant.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The justice of God in punishing sinners.

"Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly." The words express a just and salutary conviction, and make an acknowledgment suitable to accompany an appeal to the Divine compassion.

I THE CONVICTION EXPRESSED. Of very great importance that we should not only verbally utter it, but sincerely feel it. How may we arrive at this conviction?

1. By faith in God"s essential rectitude. That he cannot be unrighteous in any of his proceedings. (see Deu_32:4)

2. By considering the rectitude and goodness of the laws against which we have sinned.

3. By remembering all that God has done to guard us against sin (see on ver. 29). If we sin notwithstanding, we are justly punished.

4. By calling to mind our sins. Their essential evil, their number and magnitude, and the circumstances which aggravate their guiltiness (God"s varied kindness, our opportunities, advantages, knowledge, convictions, good resolutions, etc.). Such a review will lead us to exclaim with Ezra, "Thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve". (Ezr_9:13)

5. By comparing what we endure with the Divine threatenings. The Israelites had been warned of the consequences of their rebellion against God. He was only fulfilling his word. So it is with us. What we suffer is no more, is indeed less, than we were warned to expect.

II THE BENEFITS OF SUCH A CONVICTION.

1. It will prevent our murmuring at our sufferings. "Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?". (Lam_3:39)

2. It will greatly aid in producing repentance. Suffering is likely to do its proper work in humbling us and making sin odious when we recognise the justice of God in inflicting it.

3. It will lead to an appeal to the mercy of God for deliverance. Such an appeal, made through Christ, will be regarded, while an appeal to justice would be as futile as groundless. Finally, observe that the goodness of God is as conspicuous as his justice in the sufferings he inflicts in this life. They have in view "our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness," and so of true and everlasting blessedness. But if through our perversity they fail of this result, they are followed by the penalties of "judgment without mercy."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thou art just. &c. - It becomes us, when we are under the rebukes of providence, be they ever so sharp, or ever so long continued, still to justify God, and to own we are punished less than our iniquities deserve.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

with all that has come upon us with the entire episode of the harsh tortures that have come upon us.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.