Nehemiah 9:8

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

and found his heart faithful before you, and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite, and the Girgashite, to give it to his seed, and have performed your words; for you are righteous.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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וְהַגִּרְגָּשִׁ֖י

Girgâshîy

H1622

“and · the · Girgashite”

Conjunction + Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Gentilic, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 7× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 10:16

Full BDB Definition

Origin: patrial from an unused name [of uncertain derivation]

TWOT: None

Girgashite or Girgasite = "dwelling on a clayey soil" - descendants of Canaan and one of the nations living east of the sea of Galilee when the Israelites entered the promised land

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 →

25: words
22: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is וְהַגִּרְגָּשִׁ֖י Girgashite H1622 — appearing just 7 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וְהַגִּרְגָּשִׁ֖י Girgashite H1622 occurs in 7 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

6 verbs
12 nouns
1 adjective
1 pronoun
1 preposition
1 conjunction
3 particles

Verb forms

וּמָצָ֣אתָ Qal · Sequential Perfect
נֶאֱמָ֣ן Niphal · Participle Active
וְכָר֨וֹת Qal · Infinitive Absolute
לָתֵ֡ת Qal · Infinitive Construct
לָתֵ֣ת Qal · Infinitive Construct
וַתָּ֨קֶם֙ Hiphil · Sequential Imperfect

Repetition

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

לָתֵ֡ת to give H5414 ×2

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Nehemiah 9:8 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Genesis 15:6 He believed in Yahweh; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness.
Genesis 15:18–21 In that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:
Hebrews 6:18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us.
Joshua 23:14 Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing has failed of all the good things which Yahweh your God spoke concerning you; all are happen to you, not one thing has failed of it.
Genesis 12:7 Yahweh appeared to Abram, and said, "I will give this land to your seed." He built an altar there to Yahweh, who appeared to him.
Genesis 17:7–8 I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your seed after you.
Joshua 21:43–45 So Yahweh gave to Israel all the land which he swore to give to their fathers; and they possessed it, and lived therein.
Titus 1:2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who can't lie, promised before eternal times;

Genesis 12:1–3 Now Yahweh said to Abram, "Get out of your country, and from your relatives, and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you.
Genesis 22:12 He said, "Don't lay your hand on the boy, neither do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me."
Genesis 22:16–18 and said, "I have sworn by myself, says Yahweh, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son,
Exodus 3:8 I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey; to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
Exodus 3:17 and I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey."'
Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie, Neither the son of man, that he should repent: Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?
Deuteronomy 7:1 When Yahweh your God shall bring you into the land where you go to possess it, and shall cast out many nations before you, the Hittite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations greater and mightier than you;
Deuteronomy 7:8–9 but because Yahweh loves you, and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, has Yahweh brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 9:5 Not for your righteousness, or for the uprightness of your heart, do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations Yahweh your God does drive them out from before you, and that he may establish the word which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Deuteronomy 26:3 You shall come to the priest who shall be in those days, and tell him, I profess this day to Yahweh your God, that I am come to the land which Yahweh swore to our fathers to give us.
Joshua 9:1 It happened, when all the kings who were beyond the Jordan, in the hill-country, and in the lowland, and on all the shore of the great sea in front of Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard of it;
Joshua 11:3 to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, and the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the hill-country, and the Hivite under Hermon in the land of Mizpah.
Joshua 11:23 So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that Yahweh spoke to Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. The land had rest from war.
Psalms 92:14–15 They will still bring forth fruit in old age. They will be full of sap and green,
Psalms 105:8–9 He has remembered his covenant forever, The word which he commanded to a thousand generations,
Psalms 105:43–44 He brought forth his people with joy, His chosen with singing.

Luke 1:72–73 To show mercy towards our fathers, To remember his holy covenant,
Acts 13:22 When he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, to whom he also testified, 'I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will.'
1 Timothy 1:12–13 And I thank him who enabled me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he counted me faithful, appointing me to service;
Hebrews 11:17 By faith, Abraham, being tested, offered up Isaac. Yes, he who had gladly received the promises was offering up his one and only son;
James 2:21–23 Wasn't Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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 9:8 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וּמָצָ֣אתָ אֶת לְבָבוֹ֮ נֶאֱמָ֣ן לְפָנֶיךָ֒ וְכָר֨וֹת עִמּ֜וֹ הַבְּרִ֗ית לָתֵ֡ת אֶת אֶרֶץ֩ הַכְּנַעֲנִ֨י הַחִתִּ֜י הָאֱמֹרִ֧י וְהַפְּרִזִּ֛י וְהַיְבוּסִ֥י וְהַגִּרְגָּשִׁ֖י לָתֵ֣ת לְזַרְע֑וֹ וַתָּ֨קֶם֙ אֶת דְּבָרֶ֔יךָ כִּ֥י צַדִּ֖יק אָֽתָּה

and found his heart faithful before you, and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite, and the Girgashite, to give it to his seed, and have performed your words; for you are righteous.

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.

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 9:8 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 9:8 And foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give [it, I say], to his seed, and hast performed thy words; for thou [art] righteous:

Ver. 8. And foundest his heart faithful] He must needs find it so who had made it so. Otherwise Abraham, as well as any other, might well say, Horreo quicquid de meo est, ut meus sim (Bern.). The natural heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, &c., a bundle of sin (folly is bound up, &c.), a treasury of sin (an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart, &c.), a raging sea of sin, Isa 57:20, a world of wickedness, Jas 3:6, If any good be in it, it is but as a drop of rose water in a bowl of poison; where falling, it is presently corrupted.

And madest a covenant with him] To be his God, and the God of his seed. This was divini mellis alveare, the beehive of heavenly honey; this was more than to be made monarch of the whole world. See Gen 17:20-21.

To give the land of the Canaanites, &c.] Who had filled that good land from one end to the other with their uncleanness, Ezr 9:11, and were therefore worthily rooted out of it. So Josephus reports that in his time these Jews were grown so wicked, that if the Romans had not destroyed them, without doubt either the earth would have swallowed them up, or fire from heaven have consumed them. Bede saith of the ancient Britons (immediately before their destruction by the Saxons) that they were come to a very great height of wickedness; so as to shame the counsel of the poor, because the Lord was his refuge, Psa 14:6.

And hast performed thy words] Of many promisers it may be said, as Tertullian of the peacock, all in changeable colours: as oft changed as moved. Sertorius paid his promises with fair words. Antiochus was surnamed Doson, because he oft said, I will give you this, or that, but never did. God is none such.

For thou art righteous] That is, faithful: for there is a twofold justice of God; 1. Of equity: 2. Of fidelity. See 1Jn 1:9 Rev 10:1, where Christ is said to have a rainbow on his head; to show that he is faithful and constant in his promises.

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 9:8. And foundest his heart faithful before thee — In many instances, especially in that great trial of his faith and obedience, when thou requiredst him to offer up his only son as a sacrifice. And hast performed thy words; for thou art righteous — True to thy word, faithfully fulfilling all thy promises.

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

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) The Hivites are for some reason omitted.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

8. his heart faithful] The word ‘faithful’ is of the same root as that rendered ‘believed’ in Gen_15:6, ‘And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness;’ and the phrase here used is derived from that passage, since the same chapter in Genesis also contains a list of the peoples of the land (Neh_9:19-21), that were to be dispossessed by the seed of Abraham according to the Covenant. For the use of this adjective applied to Abraham, cf. Gal_3:9, ‘they which be of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham.’

the land of the Canaanites] R.V. the land of the Canaanite, … Hittite, &c. The six nations here referred to, are all Palestinian. From the list in Gen_15:18-21, there are here omitted ‘the Kenite, the Kenizzite, the Kadmonite, and the Rephaim.’ Perhaps only those nations are recorded of which the names were still in use.

to give it, I say, to his seed] R.V. even to give it unto his seed.

hast performed thy words] Cf. Jos_23:14, ‘Not one thing hath failed of all the good things, which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, not one thing hath failed thereof.’

for thou art righteous] The same epithet in the Hebrew is used in Neh_9:33, ‘thou art just,’ where the Divinely ordered discipline of the Exile is alluded to. The root idea of ‘righteousness’ is ‘straightness,’ that which will not swerve from truth and justice. Jehovah is called ‘righteous,’ because His rule of the world and of His people Israel is in agreement with the most perfect imaginable standard of justice and truth. Cf. Deu_32:4; Psa_85:13; Psa_145:17; Zep_3:5.

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

And foundest his heart faithful before thee,.... A true believer in his word and promises, Gen 15:6 and closely attached to the fear of him, and observance of his commands, as abundantly appeared in the trial of him, in offering up his son, Gen 22:1,

and madest a covenant with him, to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his seed; not to him personally, but to his posterity, at least including and chiefly designing them; of which covenant see Gen 15:18,

and hast performed thy words, for thou art righteous; in all his ways and works, faithful to his promise, a covenant keeping God, and who kept and fulfilled this covenant, assisting Joshua to conquer the land of Canaan, and put Israel into the possession of it.

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

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Foundest his heart faithful before thee; when thou madest that admirable trial of his faith and obedience, in requiring him to offer up his only son Isaac, thou didst find out and discover his faithfulness, which was well known to thee before, and also was wrought in him by thy grace.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

Canaanites, etc. The nations driven out were actually seven, (Deu_7:1) but it is a common figure of speech to put the part for the whole. In the present enumeration the Hivites are omitted. Hast performed thy words. Though for a time remnants of the accursed nations were left in the land, "to prove Israel", (Jud_1:3:1) yet ultimately all were either driven out or reduced to the condition of slaves. (see the comment on Ezr_2:55)

Faithfulness of heart.

"And roundest his heart faithful before thee." We have here

I A PRINCIPAL CHARACTERISTIC OF A GODLY MAN.

1. Its seat. The heart. No merely outward practices constitute faithfulness before God.

2. Its reality. It is faithfulness "before God," such as he who searches the heart can see to exist; not merely what men might from outward appearances erroneously think to exist.

3. Its principle. Faith in God (see above, IV).

4. Its manifestations.

a. Confession. Open acknowledgment of God, and testimony for him.

b. Worship.

c. Obedience.

d. Fidelity in use of talents for God.

e. Constancy and perseverance in all.

Notwithstanding temptations, difficulties, opposition, persecution, defections of others.

II THE DIVINE RECOGNITION OF IT.

1. He knows and marks it. "Foundest," etc. "The Father seeketh such," and rejoices to find them. If unobserved by men, not by him.

2. He accepts it. Though it be accompanied with imperfections, as in the case of Abraham.

3. He honours and rewards it. With gracious assurances, and the fulfillment of them. To the faithful he will show himself faithful. They shall at length be addressed, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." In conclusion, God sees all hearts; what does he find in ours?

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

Scofield Reference Notes

C. I. Scofield

faithful Gen 22:1-3; Jas 2:21-23

covenant (See Scofield "Gen 15:18")

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

and You made Heb. וְכָרוֹת, lit. and cutting, an expression of doing.

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.

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 25 words (22 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Girgâshîy (“Girgashite”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “Girgashite” (Girgâshîy) shape what this verse is saying?
Genesis 10:16 shares the word «Girgashite» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“to give” 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 «וּמָצָ֣אתָ» is Qal Sequential 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 26 words in this verse.
“to give” occurs 2× in this single verse.
22 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 25 words in this verse.