The Final Cycles (Nehemiah 9:29-31).
“And testified against them, that you might bring them again to your Law. Yet they dealt proudly, and did not listen to your commandments, but sinned against your ordinances, (which if a man do, he will live in them), and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.”
They called on God to remember how He had testified against them so that He could bring them again to His Law. Once again we have the post-exilic stress on ‘the Law' as barely stated. Yet their response had been to not listen to His Law. They had been arrogant. They had not listened to His commandments, they had sinned against His life-giving ordinances, and they had withdrawn from shouldering its requirements (like an ox withdraws its shoulder from the yoke - Hosea 4:16), becoming stiff-necked and refusing to hear, in the same way as in Nehemiah 9:16-17. Thus, they acknowledge before God, that things at the end were as at the beginning. They admitted that they were just as sinful today. Indeed within living memory they had slain one of His prophets, Zechariah the son of Berechiah (Matthew 23:35).
The citation ‘which if a man do he will live in them', appears in English to be a direct citation of Leviticus 18:5, but in the Hebrew it differs slightly. Leviticus 18:5 has ‘which if a man do them, and he shall live in them'. But the idea is parallel. Note the combined reference to ‘your Law -- your commandments -- your ordinances', which can be compared and contrasted with the' ordinances -- laws -- statutes -- and commandments' of Nehemiah 9:13. Compare Leviticus 26:15; Numbers 36:13; Deuteronomy 6:1; Deuteronomy 7:11 etc; 2 Kings 17:34; 2 Kings 17:37. These descriptions indicate the varied nature of God's Instruction (Law).
“Yet for many years you bore with them, and testified against them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet would they not give ear, therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.”
And yet, they reminded Him, in spite of their rebellions He had borne with them for many years, sending His Spirit-endued prophets to testify against them, seeking to bring them to repentance. But they had not been willing to listen, and as a consequence He had ‘given them into the hands of the peoples of the lands'. They had been exiled from their own country and scattered among the peoples of many lands. This was heartfelt confession. They felt in their own hearts guilt for what had happened. They saw themselves as having sinned along with their fathers.
“Nevertheless in your manifold mercies you did not make a full end of them, nor forsake them; for you are a gracious and merciful God.”
And so with grateful hearts they acknowledged to God how great his manifold mercies have been. Even after the long period of continual failures and rebellions He had not made a full end of them. He had not forsaken them. They had been carried off into foreign countries, but they had survived, and survived as His people. And it was all due to the fact that He was a gracious and merciful God. And with this enconium this section comes to an end.