Nehemiah 9:19

Mercy and compassion God's faithfulness Guidance and decisions God's presence

¹⁷ They refused to listen and failed to remember the wonders You performed among them. They stiffened their necks and appointed a leader to return them to their bondage in Egypt. But You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in loving devotion, and You did not forsake them.

¹⁸ Even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and when they committed terrible blasphemies,

You in Your great compassion did not forsake them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud never turned away from guiding them on their path; and by the night the pillar of fire illuminated the way they should go.

²⁰ You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold Your manna from their mouths, and You gave them water for their thirst.

²¹ For forty years You sustained them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB: You in Your great compassion did not forsake them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud never turned away from guiding them on their path; and by the night the pillar of fire illuminated the way they should go.
KJV: Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they should go.
WEB: yet you in your manifold mercies didn’t forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud didn’t depart from over them by day, to lead them in the way; neither did the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way in which they should go.
ASV: yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of cloud departed not from over them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way wherein they should go.
DARBY: yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness. The pillar of the cloud departed not from over them by day, to lead them on the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they should go.
BLB: and You, great in Your mercies, did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of the cloud He did not turn aside from them by day, to lead them on the path; and the pillar of the fire by night, to shine on them, and on the way that they should walk in it.

ÅB: Men du - i din store barmhjertighet forlot du dem ikke i ørkenen; skystøtten vek ikke fra dem om dagen, men ledet dem på veien, ei heller vek ildstøtten fra dem om natten, men lyste for dem på den vei de skulle gå.
OTB: I din store barmhjertighet forlot du dem ikke i ørkenen. Skystøtten forlot dem ikke om dagen, heller ikke ildstøtten om natten, for å lyse for dem veien de skulle gå.
B1930: Men du - i din store barmhjertighet forlot du dem ikke i ørkenen; skystøtten vek ikke fra dem om dagen, men ledet dem på veien, ei heller vek ildstøtten fra dem om natten, men lyste for dem på den vei de skulde gå.

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

Psalms 106:45
And He remembered His covenant with them, and relented by the abundance of His loving devotion.
Read in context
Nehemiah 9:27
So You delivered them into the hands of enemies who oppressed them, and in their time of distress they cried out to You. From heaven You heard them, and in Your great compassion You gave them deliverers who saved them from the hands of their enemies.
Read in context
Malachi 3:6
“Because I, the LORD, do not change, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.
Read in context
Nehemiah 9:12
You led them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way in which they should travel.
Read in context
Numbers 14:14
And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have already heard that You, O LORD, are in the midst of this people, that You, O LORD, have been seen face to face, that Your cloud stands over them, and that You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
Read in context
Daniel 9:18
Incline Your ear, O my God, and hear; open Your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears Your name. For we are not presenting our petitions before You because of our righteous acts, but because of Your great compassion.
Read in context
Daniel 9:9
To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, even though we have rebelled against Him
Read in context
Numbers 9:15–22
On the day that the tabernacle, the Tent of the Testimony, was set up, the cloud covered it and appeared like fire above the tabernacle from evening until morning.
Read in context