Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Nehemiah 9:12
Moreover thou leddest them in the day by a cloudy pillar; and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein they should go.
12 21. The Wilderness
12. in the day by a cloudy pillar ] R.V. in a pillar of cloud by day.
in the night by a pillar of fire ] R.V. in a pillar of fire by night. See for these words Exo 13:21-22; Num 14:14. And compare the poetical description in very similar words of Psa 78:14; Psa 105:39.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Neh 9:12
Moreover Thou leddest them in the day by a cloudy pillar.
The pillars of cloud and fire
The people who for forty years followed that fire-cloud have left footprints in the sands of time which serve us as an alphabet of life. The march of the Israelites is an allegory of the life of man. Like a providence palpable to the very eyes of man, the fire-cloud indexed that will of God which it is the longing of true hearts in every age to fulfil. This fire-cloud suggests–
I. That mans life on earth is a divinely-conducted discipline. The Israelites emerged from Egypt a huge bee-swarm of humanity making for another hive. From the dark superstitions of life and the coarse immoralities of antiquity they went into the wilderness to learn the rudiments of life. Outside the sphere of mans natural resources Israel had to learn faith in the supernatural environment of man, Their wilderness journey was the drill of a nation destined to be the vehicle of Divine revelation to a world. Our life on earth is mainly a prolonged and various discipline, and its significance lies in the finally resulting manhood. The main matter is not how long it takes us to cross this strip of earth, or how much we have while we travel, but what the journey makes of us as regards the naked, moral character of us all. Very suggestive, if you will ponder, is Israels inability to comprehend the meaning of a great deal of their march. Why they should lie still, and why move, were not always plain. We cannot readily comprehend the zigzag ways of life. Looking at our things, and not at our soul, we sometimes seem to be moving in a very resultless way–marking time rather than marching. Said a good and active man whose work is his life, By this sickness I have lost a month. How so? Through every day of his life henceforth he will carry a reverent thoughtfulness of God, and in all his character there will be the tinge of a mellow tenderness, the results of that lost months meditative realisations. Was the month lost, then? God leads and leaves us not where we would like to be, but where we have need to be. There is wisdom in every stage of lifes march and countermarch. Lifes roughest mile is ordered of the Lord, and its darkest place is illuminated by the pillar of fire. It is wisdom to store the lessons of experience. Child-like, we forget the back lessons. The teachings of sorrows school are forgotten in the playground of our joyfulness.
II. That throughout our life-journey we follow a God we never see. That fire-bordered cloud was not God. The cathedral window ablaze with its mingled glories hides the sun, while it is at the same time a many-coloured witness of his living radiance. Life leaves room for doubt, and gives worldliness its chance. Herein lies much of our probation. Those tokens of God which are evidence of things not seen are frequently familiarised into comparative powerlessness over the soul.
1. Some of the Israelites sinned under the very shadow of the pillar of fire. The sentiments of reverence and wonder are in danger of exile from the mind.
2. Nature, with its transformations of the seasons.
3. The Sabbath.
4. The house of God.
5. Prayer; our prayers may become like the winding of our watches–acts we do, scarcely sure whether they are done or not. We often see most of God in the night of experience.
III. That protection which Gods presence insures to those that follow him. Over the sleeping camp the cloud lay like a golden warrior-shield. Yet how slowly was Israel trained to courage! Every new danger created a coward hubbub in the camp. Their foes could do them no harm; but their imaginations were terrible to them as an army with banners. Their minds were made nervous by their own delusions. The Parisians have exhibited what they call a Panorama of the War. Climbing what appears to be a kind of tower, you seem to see the country around Paris alive with the grim activities of war. Nearest the spectator are placed real cannon and the like, and these shade off into painted forms beyond so perfectly as to produce an illusion like that of the painter who attracted the quick-eyed birds to his painted grapes. The illusion is wonderful, and you can all but smell the gunpowder. But there is no movement–the soldiers are still as stones, the bursting shell remains in the act of explosion, and the flame-flash continues from the cannon-mouth. That breaks the spell. It is but picture, after all. Thus we go at times up the tower of apprehension, and see besieging armies of trouble. Near to us are some real objects of fear, and from them we go on to paint a long perspective of morbid fancies, until life seems ringed round with innumerable foes. After awhile we find it is mostly picture–the very painting of our fear. Let the chief anxiety of all be to follow the great Leader of lifes pilgrimage. (Samuel Gregory.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 12. By a cloudy pillar] See the notes on the parallel passages, both here and in the other verses.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Moreover, thou leddest them in the day by a cloudy pillar,…. The Israelites, to shelter them from the heat of the sun in a dry and barren wilderness:
and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein they should go; through a trackless desert, see
Ex 13:21.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
God’s Resultant Full Provision For His People ( Neh 9:12-15 ).
Having delivered them so wonderfully and powerfully God had made full provision for His people in the wilderness:
He had made His presence with them known in the form of the pillars of cloud and fire, pillars which led them forward by day and night. For even the darkness was made light before them, so that they could travel by both day and night (Neh 9:12; compare Exo 13:20-21).
He had guided them in their way of living by providing His commandments, statutes and laws (Neh 9:13-14).
He had supplied them with God-provided food and drink to satisfy their hunger and thirst (Neh 9:15 a).
And He had given them the encouragement of knowing that a promised land lay before them (Neh 9:15 b).
Note the personal nature of His activity. ‘You led them — You came down and spoke with them — You made known to them — You gave them bread from heaven — and brought forth water — You commanded them to possess the land.’ They should have been more than grateful, and more than fully satisfied. And the same pattern will be repeated in Neh 9:19-24 a, protection (Neh 9:19), instruction (Neh 9:20), sustenance (Neh 9:21) and possession of the land (Neh 9:22-24 a), and this after they had rebelled against Him (Neh 9:18). Their rebellion did not cause Him to cease from providing fully for them. (This makes even more poignant the fact that at the end they will make clear that at that present time there was such a lack. They were in the land but they did not possess it (Neh 9:36-37). They were living in relative poverty. There is in this a blatant hint to God).
Neh 9:12
“Moreover in a pillar of cloud you led them by day, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light in the way in which they should go.”
The pillars of cloud and fire are constantly referred to in the tradition. They represented YHWH in His glorious hiddenness, as surrounded by cloud, and in His more open glory as revealed in fire, veiled by the night. The pillar of cloud had hidden them from the Egyptian army, delaying the Egyptians until Israel had crossed the river bed (Exo 14:19-20). It also manifested the veiled glory of YHWH (Exo 16:10). Fire was regularly the means through which God manifested Himself (Exo 19:18; Exo 24:17). Cloud and fire were the indications of God’s presence, indicating that ‘You led them’ (Exo 14:24; Exo 16:10). And they would be a regular occurrence in the future journeying (Num 14:14; Deu 1:33), a guarantee that YHWH was continually with them. Furthermore the descent of the pillar of cloud regularly indicated His presence in the Tabernacle (Exo 33:9-10; Num 12:5; Num 14:14; Deu 31:15). God was personally shepherding His people.
Neh 9:13
“You came down also on mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments,”
Note the repetition of the words from Exo 19:20, although personalised, ‘and YHWH came down on Mount Sinai’, but there God spoke from the top of the mount. ‘From heaven’ might therefore be seen as simply indicating that God spoke from on high (the top of the mount), but it is apparent from Neh 9:15, where the bread was also ‘from heaven’, that Nehemiah is taking us one step further and reminding us that the source of all that we receive is ‘heavenly’. Thus in Neh 9:15 the manna is ‘bread from Heaven’ (cited by Jesus in Joh 6:31). In both cases the source was other-worldly.
They acknowledged to YHWH that in speaking to them from heaven He had given them ‘right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments’. Note the adjectives. They were right and true and good. They were not seen as a burden, which was what the Scribes would later make them, but as morally uplifting and coming from the truly righteous and good One. ‘Ordinances, laws, statutes and commandments’ were regular ways of describing God instruction (His Torah). See Lev 18:4-5; Lev 18:26; Lev 26:15; Lev 26:46; Deu 4:45; Deu 5:31; Deu 6:1; Deu 6:20; Deu 7:11; Deu 8:11; Deu 11:1; Deu 26:17; Deu 30:16. But in no previous case are all these four words used together. The constant emphasis on the reception of God’s Instruction by the people (Neh 9:13-14; Neh 9:20; Neh 9:29) was a reminder that as the people they had recently received this Instruction. But the inference was that they were to respond to it differently from their fathers.
Neh 9:14
“And made known to them your holy sabbath, and commanded them commandments, and statutes, and a law, by Moses your servant,”
They reminded God that He had also made known to them His holy Sabbath (for ‘holy Sabbath’ see Exo 16:23). This description contains a hint that the Sabbath was made known as a separate requirement before the giving of the Law, which was in fact true (compare Exodus 16 with 20)
The emphasis on the Sabbath reflects the Exilic period. It was then that the Sabbath had become the unique outward expression of what it meant to be a Jew, as they lived among non-Jews. It was through the observance of the Sabbath that men around them knew that they were distinctive, and it was a symbol of both YHWH as sole Creator (Exo 20:8-10) and YHWH as Redeemer and Deliverer of His people (Deu 5:14-15). It was initially instituted for all Israel at the first giving of the manna (Exo 16:23-26), in other words when God ‘gave them bread from heaven to eat’, something immediately mentioned in Neh 9:15.
Note the repetition concerning the giving of the Law, it was something prominent in their minds at this time (Neh 8:1-18), and this prayer was part of their response to it.
Neh 9:15
“And you gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, and brought forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst,’
They reminded Him of how He had led them, protected them, and guided them in how to ‘live’, and now He fed and watered them. There was no need that He had overlooked. They had received bread from heaven in order to satisfy their hunger, and water from the rock to satisfy their thirst. There is a constant emphasis throughout the passage on the material good things that God gave to His people (Neh 9:15; Neh 9:19; Neh 9:21; Neh 9:25). In the period of want that they were enduring after the return (Neh 1:3) it was no doubt an intentional reminder to God of what they were no longer receiving. They humbly and without their openly telling Him, wanted Him to notice the gap in His present provision for them. We too have partaken of this bread and water, for Jesus likened Himself to the bread from heaven (Joh 6:33), and the water of life (John 4/10-14) and Paul likened Him to the thirst-quenching rock (1Co 10:4). For we have entered into His Sabbath rest (Hebrews 4).
Neh 9:15
‘And commanded them that they should go in to possess the land which you had sworn to give them.”
And finally He had assured them of possession of the land which He had sworn to give them, something which was later accomplished (Neh 9:23-24 a). And this was of prime importance, for land on which to dwell, and which could be farmed, and which they could call their own, was the dream of every man. He wanted to live ‘every man under his own vine and under his own fig tree’ (1Ki 4:25). Again there is the unspoken hint (although only openly expressed later – Neh 9:36-37) that at this present time, while it was true that they now dwelt in the land, they had not received full possession of the land that He had sworn to give to their fathers.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Neh 9:12 Moreover thou leddest them in the day by a cloudy pillar; and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein they should go.
Ver. 12. Moreover thou leddest them by day, &c. ] This pillar of a cloud was miraculously moved with such variation as God thought fit, for the guiding of their journeys; much better than did or could Vibilia, that heathen fiction.
And in the night by a pillar of fire
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
leddest them = leddest them gently.
cloudy pillar. Compare Exo 13:21.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
thou leddest: Neh 9:19, Exo 13:21, Exo 13:22, Exo 14:19, Exo 14:20, Psa 78:14, Psa 105:39
in the way: Psa 107:7, Psa 143:8
Reciprocal: Num 9:15 – the cloud Num 9:16 – General Num 9:21 – abode Num 10:34 – General Num 14:14 – thy cloud Deu 1:31 – in the wilderness Deu 1:33 – in fire Deu 32:12 – the Lord Jos 24:7 – ye dwelt Psa 31:3 – lead Psa 78:52 – But Psa 136:16 – General Isa 4:5 – a cloud Jer 2:2 – when Jer 31:2 – found Hab 3:4 – brightness Act 7:36 – and in the wilderness 1Co 10:1 – were