Nehemiah 9:12-21 - Wandering In The Wilderness

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“And with a pillar of cloud You led them by day,
And with a pillar of fire by night
To light the way for them
In which they were to go.
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“Then You came down on Mount Sinai,
And spoke with them from heaven;
And You gave them fair ordinances and true laws,
Good statutes and commandments.
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“So You made known to them Your holy Sabbath,
And gave them commandments, statutes, and law,
Through Your servant Moses.
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“You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger,
And brought water for them out of a rock for their thirst,
And You told them to enter and take possession of
The land that You swore to give them. ¹⁶
“But they, our fathers, acted arrogantly;
They stiffened their necks and would not heed Your commandments.
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“They refused to listen and obey,
And did not remember Your wondrous acts which You had performed among them;
So they stiffened their necks and [in their rebellion] appointed a leader in order to return them to slavery in Egypt.
But You are a God of forgiveness,
Gracious and merciful and compassionate,
Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness;
And You did not abandon them.
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“Even when they had made for themselves
A calf of cast metal
And said, ‘This is your god
Who brought you up from Egypt,’
And committed great [and contemptible] blasphemies,
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You, in Your great mercy and compassion,
Did not abandon them in the wilderness;
The pillar of the cloud did not leave them by day,
To lead them in the way,
Nor the pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way they should go.
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“You [also] gave Your good Spirit to instruct them,
You did not withhold Your manna from their mouth,
And You gave them water for their thirst.
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“Indeed, for forty years You sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing,
Their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell.