“Yes, forty years you sustained them in the wilderness. They lacked nothing. Their clothes didn’t grow old, and their feet didn’t swell.
Parallel Translations
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“Yes, forty years you sustained them in the wilderness. They lacked nothing. Their clothes didn’t grow old, and their feet didn’t swell.
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Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.
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Yea, forty years didst Thou sustain them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.
Cross-references (9)
Passages linked to Nehemiah 9:21 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Deuteronomy 2:7 For Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has known your walking through this great wilderness. These forty years, Yahweh your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.
- Deuteronomy 8:4 Your clothing didn’t grow old on you, neither did your foot swell, these forty years.
- Deuteronomy 29:5 I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not grown old on you, and your sandals have not grown old on your feet.
- Psalms 34:10 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger, but those who seek Yahweh shall not lack any good thing.
- Exodus 16:35 The children of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land. They ate the manna until they came to the borders of the land of Canaan.
- Numbers 14:33-34 Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies are consumed in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, you will bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you will know my alienation.’
- Deuteronomy 8:2 You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.
- Amos 5:25 “Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel?
- Acts 13:18 For a period of about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (7 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Though the way was tedious and long.
Though the way was tedious and long.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Neh 9:21 Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them…
Neh 9:21 Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, [so that] they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.
Ver. 21. Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them] Sustain them? this is a mere Meiosis, since never was prince so served in his greatest pomp as these rebellious Israelites were in the wilderness: they had their quails and their manna, and the rock to follow them, &c.
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So that they lacked nothing] Nor more shall they that seek the Lord lack any good thing, Psa 34:10; Psa 84:11. God will not be a wilderness to them, or a land of darkness, Jer 2:31. A sufficiency they shall be sure of, if not a superfluity; yea, in the midst of straits they shall be in a sufficiency, 1Ti 6:6. The ungodly are not so, Job 20:22.
Their clothes waxed not old] They wore not in the wearing. This was wonderful; these men lived in an age of miracles; here was no need of, What shall we put on? For the clothes they had of their own, and that which they borrowed from the Egyptians decayed not; but, as some think, grew up with their persons. See Deu 8:4; Deu 29:5.
And their feet swelled not] Nor did any other disease annoy them, while they were in the wilderness. There was not one feeble person among them: this was a sweet mercy. Non est vivere, sed valere, vita; si vales, bene est. Vincentio Pestiom, an Italian gentleman, being asked how old he was? answered, that he was in health. And to another that asked how rich he was? answered, that he was not in debt. This was the happiness of these Israelites in the wilderness.
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 Of which See Poole "Deu 8:4".
Of which See Poole "Deu 8:4".
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the…
Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing,.... As not for food, so neither for raiment, as follows:
their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not; of which see Deu 8:4.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 21. Their clothes waxed not old] See Clarke…
Verse 21. Their clothes waxed not old] See Clarke on De 8:4.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Worn. So as to be sore, (Haydock) or without…
Worn. So as to be sore, (Haydock) or without shoes. (Menochius) See Deuteronomy viii. 4. (Calmet) --- Protestants, "their feet swelled not."
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 21. The Forty Years in the Wilderness: Preservation
21. The Forty Years in the Wilderness: Preservation
forty years … so that] R.V. forty years … and. The mention of the 40 years and of the fact that ‘they lacked nothing’ shows that the origin of the clause is to be sought in Deu_2:7 ‘these forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.’
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their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not] From Deu_8:4, ‘Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.’ Cf. Deu_29:5, ‘And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.’ The language of the Deuteronomist is doubtless hyperbolical. But his words were employed as a proverbial description of Jehovah’s protection of His people in the wanderings.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.