Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, [If] ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations:
Ver. 8. Remember, I beseech thee, the word] It befalleth not the Lord to forget or remember (to speak properly), for all things are present with him. Nevertheless metaphorically God is said to do both; as when, being provoked by the horrid sins of the Jews, he so punished them as if he had forgotten that they were his people, or that he had ever made them any promises. And in this case God gives his prophets and praying people leave to be his remembrancers, Isaiah 62:6,7. Ye that are the Lord's remembrancers, keep not silence, and give him no rest till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. This Nehemiah doth here most vigorously, and sped accordingly; let us do likewise. Cast the labouring Church into God's everlasting arms, and remind him of his promises burden him with them, as that martyr said; put them into suit, they are nigh the Lord day and night, 1 Kings 8:59. Say, remember thy word unto thy servant, whereupon thou hast caused me to trust, Psalms 119:49. And in the want of other rhetoric urge this, with repetition, Lord, thou hast promised, thou hast promised, &c. He loves to be urged with his word, to be used upon his bond, &c.
The word that thou commandest, &c.] The threatening is also to be acknowledged God's word, as well as the promise; and the uprightness of our hearts is, to be approving by believing the one as well as the other. Sour and sweet make the best sauce; promises and menaces mingled serve to keep the heart in the best temper, as Nehemiah's was.