Nehemiah 9:13-21

English Standard Version

^13 (A)You came down on Mount Sinai ^(B)and spoke with them from heaven and gave them ^(C)right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments, ^14 (D)and you made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them commandments and statutes and a law by Moses your servant. ^15 (E)You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and ^(F)brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and you ^(G)told them to go in to possess the land that you had sworn to give them.

¹⁶ “But they and our fathers ^(H)acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. ¹⁷ They refused to obey ^(I)and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.^[a] But you are a God ready to forgive, ^(J)gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. ¹⁸ Even ^(K)when they had made for themselves a golden^[b] calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ ^(L)and had committed great blasphemies, ¹⁹ you ^(M)in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. ^(N)The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, ^(O)nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. ^20 (P)You gave your good Spirit to instruct them ^(Q)and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. ^21 (R)Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.