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Nehemiah 9:13

“You also came down on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    “You also came down on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments,

  • KJV King James Version

    Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments:

  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spokest with them from heaven, and gavest them right ordinances and laws of truth, good statutes and commandments;

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Contradictions (1)

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Cross-references (22)

Passages linked to Nehemiah 9:13 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • Exodus 20:1 God spoke all these words, saying,
  • Psalms 119:160 All of your words are truth. Every one of your righteous ordinances endures forever.
  • Exodus 19:11 and be ready for the third day; for on the third day Yahweh will come down in the sight of all the people on Mount Sinai.
  • Psalms 119:127-128 Therefore I love your commandments more than gold, yes, more than pure gold. Therefore I consider all of your precepts to be right. I hate every false way.
  • Deuteronomy 5:22-26 Yahweh spoke these words to all your assembly on the mountain out of the middle of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice. He added no more. He wrote them on two stone tablets, and gave them to me. When you heard the voice out of the middle of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders; and you said, “Behold, Yahweh our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the middle of the fire. We have seen today that God does speak with man, and he lives. Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear Yahweh our God’s voice any more, then we shall die. For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as we have, and lived?
  • Psalms 19:7-11 Yahweh’s law is perfect, restoring the soul. Yahweh’s covenant is sure, making wise the simple. Yahweh’s precepts are right, rejoicing the heart. Yahweh’s commandment is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of Yahweh is clean, enduring forever. Yahweh’s ordinances are true, and righteous altogether. They are more to be desired than gold, yes, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the extract of the honeycomb. Moreover your servant is warned by them. In keeping them there is great reward.
  • Ezekiel 20:11-13 I gave them my statutes, and showed them my ordinances, which if a man does, he will live in them. Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies them. “ ‘ “But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They didn’t walk in my statutes, and they rejected my ordinances, which if a man keeps, he shall live in them. They greatly profaned my Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them in the wilderness, to consume them.
  • Romans 7:12-14 Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good. Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, was producing death in me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin.
  • Exodus 19:16-20 On the third day, when it was morning, there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of an exceedingly loud trumpet; and all the people who were in the camp trembled. Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the lower part of the mountain. All of Mount Sinai smoked, because Yahweh descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice. Yahweh came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. Yahweh called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
  • Exodus 20:22 Yahweh said to Moses, “This is what you shall tell the children of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.
  • Deuteronomy 4:8 What great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I set before you today?
  • Deuteronomy 4:33 Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as you have heard, and live?
  • Deuteronomy 5:4 Yahweh spoke with you face to face on the mountain out of the middle of the fire,
  • Psalms 119:137 You are righteous, Yahweh. Your judgments are upright.
  • Isaiah 64:1 Oh that you would tear the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence.
  • Isaiah 64:3 When you did awesome things which we didn’t look for, you came down, and the mountains quaked at your presence.
  • Deuteronomy 4:10-13 the day that you stood before Yahweh your God in Horeb, when Yahweh said to me, “Assemble the people to me, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.” You came near and stood under the mountain. The mountain burned with fire to the heart of the sky, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. Yahweh spoke to you out of the middle of the fire: you heard the voice of words, but you saw no form; you only heard a voice. He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments. He wrote them on two stone tablets.
  • Deuteronomy 10:12-13 Now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, to keep Yahweh’s commandments and statutes, which I command you today for your good?
  • Deuteronomy 33:2 He said, “Yahweh came from Sinai, and rose from Seir to them. He shone from Mount Paran. He came from the ten thousands of holy ones. At his right hand was a fiery law for them.
  • Habakkuk 3:3 God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens, and his praise filled the earth.
  • Romans 7:16 But if what I don’t desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good.
  • Hebrews 12:18-26 For you have not come to a mountain that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and to blackness, darkness, storm, the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which those who heard it begged that not one more word should be spoken to them, for they could not stand that which was commanded, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned”. So fearful was the appearance that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.” But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels, to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel. See that you don’t refuse him who speaks. For if they didn’t escape when they refused him who warned on the earth, how much more will we not escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven, whose voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.”

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

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Explain this verse (8 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Neh 9:13 Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai,…

Neh 9:13 Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments:

Ver. 13. Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai] A place of many bushes and briers. The law there delivered, pricketh and pierceth the consciences of evildoers. Thither God came with ten thousands of his saints, as Moses (who climbed up that hill, and alone saw it) saith, Deu 33:2.

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And spakest with them from heaven] He came down upon Sinai, and yet spake from heaven. See a like text, Joh 3:13. There he spake also with us, Hos 12:4. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh from heaven, see that ye shift him not off, much less turn away from him, Heb 12:25.

And gavest them right judyments, &c.] All these high praises are far below the worth and excellency of God’s holy laws. They were given in the wilderness, because (saith Philo) they are to be learnt in a wilderness; seeing there we cannot be hindered by the multitude. But this is no way solid, as one hath well observed.

Good statutes and commandments] Good they are in respect, 1. Of the author; 2. Of the matter; 3. Of the effect: for they make those good that observe them. This is true of the moral law; as for the judicial, it was fitted to the Jews, and best for them: but Carolostadius did ill to seek to force it, as needful for all Christian commonwealths. Solon being asked whether he had given the best laws to the Athenians? answered, the best for them, the best that they could suffer. So here.

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.

Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain True laws; not such laws as some of the…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Thou camest down also upon Mount Sinai,.... By some…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Good statutes - The moral and judicial precepts were…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Neh 9:13. And gavest them good statutes — The…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 13. The Sinaitic Legislation
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (13) Right judgements.—Five of the names given to the…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Right judgments, true laws, good statutes, etc., are expressions…

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