Nehemiah 9:1

Now in the twenty fourth day of this month,.... The seventh month, the month Tisri or September, two days after the feast of tabernacles was ended: the children of Israel were assembled with fasting,

Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth upon them.

CHAPTER 9 The solemn fast and repentance of the people, ,2; and the manner of it, . The Levites confess and bless God for his goodness to them and their fathers, , in Egypt, ,10; in their journey out of it, ,12; upon Mount Sinai, ,14; in their journey towards Canaan, ; in the wilderness, ; in driving out the nations before them, ; in hearing their prayer when in trouble, and saving them, . They confess their sins, ; and seal a covenant, . In the twenty and fourth day of this month; the next day but one after the feast of tabernacles, which begun on the 14th day, and ended on the 22nd day, Leviticus 23; for their consciences having then been fully awakened by the law read to them, and their hearts being full of grief for their great sins, which they were not allowed to express in that time of public joy and triumph; now when that was past, they resume their former thoughts and passions, and recalling their sins to mind, set apart a day for solemn fasting and humiliation.

Nehemiah 9:1 Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth upon them.Ver. 1. Now in the twenty and fourth day] A day after the feast of tabernacles, they keep a solemn fast: Usque adeo nihil est, ex omni parte, beatum. There is in this present life an interchange of all things, a succession of feasting and fasting. Of the best, while here it may be said, as Pliny doth of Metellus, Infelix dici non debet, felix non potest; unhappy you cannot call him, happy you may not (lib. vii. cap. 47). One compareth him to the Ark, which was ever transported, till settled in Solomon’ s Temple; another to quicksilver, which hath in itself a principle of motion, but not of rest. The children of Israel were assembled with fasting] As Epaminondas walked heavily the day after his triumph. Deadness of spirit is apt to follow our liveliest joys; but that must be looked to, and security prevented, which is wont to seize upon men after holy duties; like as worms and wasps eat the sweetest fruits. These fasters had wept at the hearing of the law, and were stilled by the Levites, Nehemiah 8:11, because it was unseasonable. Now the feast being over, and their hearts yet full of grief for their great sin in taking strange wives (not yet put away, though they had vowed to do it, Ezra 10:3, &c.), they first put away those wives on the twenty-third day, and then humble themselves by fasting and prayer on this twenty-fourth day; being wrought thereunto by the reading of the law, as is implied in the next verse. And with sackcloth] As acknowledging themselves unworthy of the coarsest clothing; and that, but for shame, they would have stripped themselves naked. And earth upon them] As those that had forfeited all, and deserved to be as far underground as now they were above.

(1) In the twenty and fourth day.—After one day of rest, the people assembled with all the tokens of sorrow, even to dust on the head (1 Samuel 4:12): the external signs and the internal spirit were one.

CHAPTER IX On the twenty-fourth day of the seventh month, the people hold a solemn fast unto the Lord, and confess their sins, 1-3. The Levites give a general account of God's kindness and forbearance to them and to their fathers; and acknowledge God's mercies and judgments, 4-37. They make a covenant with the Lord, 38. NOTES ON CHAP. IX Verse 1. Now in the twenty and fourth day] The feast of trumpets was on the first day of this month; on the fourteenth began the feast of tabernacles, which, lasting seven days, finished on the twenty-second; on the twenty-third they separated themselves from their illegitimate wives and children; and, on the twenty-fourth, they held a solemn day of fasting and confession of sin, and reading the law, which they closed by renewing their covenants.

1–5a. The Day of National Humiliation, and its religious servicesIt must be admitted that, if the Great Day of Atonement were observed at this time, it is strange that its occurrence in this month was not made use of for the solemn service of confession. Perhaps this was one of the commands of ‘the law,’ of which the stricter observance as of the Feast of Tabernacles (Nehemiah 8:17), was now first publicly made known to the people.

The festival lasted from the 15th day of the 7th month to the first. The 22nd day was a day of solemn observance Nehemiah 8:18.

THE DAY OF AND PRAYER, Nehemiah 9:1-37. 1. The twenty and fourth day — Two days after the close of the feast of tabernacles. With fasting — Or, in fasting; in this way they observed the day.