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Nehemiah 9 · a question people ask

Who is praying, from 9:6 on?

In the text

The chapter names the Levites who call the people to pray: the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel and the others, said, "Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting!" (9:5). From "You are the LORD, even you alone" (9:6) to the end of the chapter, no speaker is named. The WEB opens its quotation marks at 9:5 and closes them only at the end of 9:38, but no verse says whether the Levites of 9:5 go on speaking, and these notes don't say who prays. What the prayer does say is whom it speaks for. It says "our fathers" (9:9, 9:16, 9:32), "our God" (9:32), and "we": "we have done wickedly" (9:33), "we are servants today" (9:36), "we make a sure covenant" (9:38). And it ends with those who will seal: "our princes, our Levites, and our priests" (9:38).

The verses

““You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry by the Red Sea,”
Nehemiah 9:9 · World English Bible
““But they and our fathers behaved proudly, hardened their neck, didn’t listen to your commandments,”
Nehemiah 9:16 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Nehemiah 9

Nehemiah 9: A God ready to pardon

Nehemiah 9 tells Israel's whole story to God, from "You have made heaven" (9:6) to "we are servants today" (9:36), and again and again the people's turning away is met by God's mercy: "a God ready to pardon… and didn’t forsake them" (9:17). It ends with "a sure covenant" (9:38): in Hebrew not berit, but amanah.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions