Nehemiah 9:6

Thou, even thou art Lord alone,.... Whose name alone is Jehovah, the one only true and living God: thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host; the airy and starry heavens, and

Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest

The host of heaven; either, 1. The stars, which after their manner worship and praise God, as all the creatures do after their manner, of which see Psalms 148$; or rather, 2. The angels, who are so called, as , who do worship God truly and properly. And it is most usual and reasonable to understand all words properly, where there is no need of a figurative interpretation. And if this were understood of metaphorical and objective worshipping of God, there seems to be no reason to appropriate that to the host of heaven, to wit, the stars, seeing the hosts of sea and earth do in that sense worship God no less than the stars do, namely, in giving angels and men matter and occasion of worshipping and praising of God.

Nehemiah 9:6 Thou, [even] thou, [art] LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all [things] that [are] therein, the seas, and all that [is] therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.Ver. 6. Thou, even thou, art Lord alone] Jehovah is God’ s incommunicable name; that holy and reverend name of his which Jews pronounce not, we too oft profane, at least by not considering the import of it; which is enough to answer all our doubts, and to fill us with strong consolation, had we but skill to spell all the letters in it. Thou hast made heaven] With great skill and artifice thou hast made it, three stories high, 2 Corinthians 12:2 Hebrews 11:10. The heaven of heavens] Called the highest, Luke 2:14, and the third heaven, 2 Corinthians 12:2. Of this heaven no natural knowledge can be had, nor any help by human arts, geometry, optics, &c.; for it is neither aspectable nor movable. With all their host] i.e. Their furniture: angels, those heavenly courtiers, sun, moon, and stars, &c., which are all God’ s servants, Psalms 119:91, and do, in their way, worship him. The earth, and all things that are therein] God may be read in the great book of nature, which hath three leaves, heaven, earth, and sea. Heaven is all that is above earth. Earth is an element of cold and dry nature, thick, solid, heavy, placed in the midst of the world as the foundation thereof, and therefore unmovable, though round (and in that respect naturally apt for motion), and though founded, not upon solid rocks, but fluid waters. This Aristotle himself wondered at, Lib. ii. de Caelo, cap. 13. And all things that are thereon] Either therein, as metals and minerals; or thereon, as men, beasts, creeping things, &c. The seas, and all that are therein] As, There is that leviathan, and creeping things innumerable. God’ s handiwork all of them. And thou preservest them all] Givest them ζωηνκαιπνοην, Acts 17:25, life and breath motion and maintenance; thou upholdest the whole creation by the word of thy power, and all things subsist by thy upholding, Hebrews 1:3. God doth not cast off the care of his works that he hath made (as doth the carpenter, or shipwright), but being perpetually present with them, ruleth, disposeth, and ordereth all by a certain counsel, to his own ends, and at length to his own glory. And the host of heaven worshippeth thee] Angels and saints especially; who the more they know of God the more they love him and honour him; making their addresses to him with greatest self-abasement, considering their distance and disproportion. Thus angels: as for saints: "All thy works praise thee, O God," saith David, that is, they give matter and occasion; "but thy saints bless thee," Psalms 145:10. How they do this, see Revelation 5:11-12.

(6) Preservest them all.—In this comprehensiveness reproduced only in Hebrews 1:3. The host of heaven.—First the stars, but here the angels (Psalms 103:21).

Verse 6. Thou preservest them all] ואתה מחיה את כלם vettah mechaiyeh eth cullam, and thou givest life to them all: and the host of the heavens, לך משתחוים lecha mishtachavim, prostrate themselves unto thee. How near is this to the opinion of Kepler, that all the heavenly host are instinct with life, and navigate the great expanse on pinions adjusted to their situation in their respective orbits! But to preserve in life, or in being, is a very good meaning in the original, which does not necessarily imply vitality. We say a tree is alive when flourishing, a plant is dead when it withers, &c.

6. Thou, even thou, art Lord alone] R.V. Thou art the LORD, even thou alone. The confession opens with a declaration of the unity of the God of Israel. Jehovah alone is: He alone made the worlds and led Israel. Cf. Psalms 83:18, ‘That they may know that thou alone, whose name is Jehovah (marg. thou whose name alone is Jehovah) art the Most High above all the earth,’ Isaiah 44:6. made] ‘fecisti’ not ‘creasti,’ ‘βsah’ not ‘bara;’ no reference to Genesis 1:1; Genesis 2:1. heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host] For ‘the heaven’ and ‘the heaven of heavens,’ cf. Deuteronomy 10:14; 1 Kings 8:27; 2 Chronicles 2:6; 2 Chronicles 6:18; Psalms 148:4. It denotes ‘the heavens’ in their plenitude, the clouds, and the wonders of the sky, the stars and the whole sidereal world. therein] R.V. thereon. therein] R.V. in them, giving emphasis to the use of the plural. preservest] literally, ‘givest life to,’ ‘quickenest;’ LXX. ζωοποιεῖς. Vulg. ‘vivificas,’ an allusion to the continuity of Divine operation in relation to the Universe. Cf. Job 33:4; John 5:17. the host of heaven] Does this refer to the stars and the powers of the sky, or to the angelic beings? The words, being separated from the phrase, ‘all their host’ and following upon the mention of the seas and the earth, most probably mean the created spirits, a distinct group of created things, 1 Kings 22:19; Psalms 103:21.

The host of heaven worshippeth thee - i. e the angels. See 1 Kings 22:19; Psalms 103:21.

6. All their host — The glorious host of stars. Compare Genesis 2:1. Host of heaven worshippeth thee — Here the host of angels are intended. Compare Psalms 103:21; Psalms 148:2.