Nehemiah 9:16

Authorized King James Version (1611)

But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments,

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וְהֵ֥ם וַאֲבֹתֵ֖ינוּ הֵזִ֑ידוּ וַיַּקְשׁוּ֙ אֶת־עָרְפָּ֔ם וְלֹ֥א שָׁמְע֖וּ אֶל־מִצְוֺתֶֽיךָ׃

Transliteration

*wə-hēm waʾăbōtênû hēzîdû wayyaqšû ʾet-ʿorpām wə-lōʾ šāməʿû ʾel-miṣwōteyḵā

Grammar Details

• *wə-hēm*: conjunction + 3mp pronoun - and they
• *waʾăbōtênû*: conjunction + noun, masculine plural + 1cp suffix - and our fathers
• *hēzîdû*: hiphil perfect, 3cp - they acted presumptuously/proudly
• *wayyaqšû*: conjunction + hiphil imperfect, 3mp - and they hardened
• *ʾet-ʿorpām*: direct object marker + noun, masculine singular + 3mp suffix - their neck
• *wə-lōʾ*: conjunction + negative particle - and not
• *šāməʿû*: qal perfect, 3cp - they listened/obeyed
• *ʾel-miṣwōteyḵā*: preposition + noun, feminine plural + 2ms suffix - to your commandments

Word Meanings

• *hēzîdû*: acted presumptuously/became proud/were insolent
• *wayyaqšû ʾet-ʿorpām*: hardened their necks/became stubborn/stiffened their necks
• *šāməʿû*: listened/obeyed/heeded

Referenced Verses

• Deut 31:27 : 27 For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the LORD; and how much more after my death?
• Neh 9:10 : 10 And shewedst signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all the people of his land: for thou knewest that they dealt proudly against them. So didst thou get thee a name, as [it is] this day.
• Neh 9:29 : 29 And testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring them again unto thy law: yet they dealt proudly, and hearkened not unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments, (which if a man do, he shall live in them;) and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.
• Ps 81:11-14 : 11 But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me. 12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: [and] they walked in their own counsels. 13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, [and] Israel had walked in my ways! 14 I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.
• Ps 95:8-9 : 8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, [and] as [in] the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. 10 Forty years long was I grieved with [this] generation, and said, It [is] a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:
• Ps 106:6 : 6 ¶ We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.
• Prov 29:1 : 1 ¶ He, that being often reproved hardeneth [his] neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.
• Isa 48:4 : 4 Because I knew that thou [art] obstinate, and thy neck [is] an iron sinew, and thy brow brass;
• Isa 48:18 : 18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:
• Isa 63:10 : 10 But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, [and] he fought against them.
• Jer 2:31 : 31 O generation, see ye the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?
• Jer 19:15 : 15 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.
• Acts 7:51 : 51 ¶ Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers [did], so [do] ye.
• Rom 2:5 : 5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
• Heb 3:13 : 13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
• Heb 3:15 : 15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
• Ps 78:8-9 : 8 And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation [that] set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God. 9 ¶ The children of Ephraim, [being] armed, [and] carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. 10 They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law; 11 And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them. 12 Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, [in] the field of Zoan. 13 He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap. 14 In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire. 15 He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave [them] drink as [out of] the great depths. 16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers. 17 And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness. 18 And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. 19 Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? 20 Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people? 21 Therefore the LORD heard [this], and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel; 22 Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation: 23 Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven, 24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven. 25 Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full. 26 He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind. 27 He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea: 28 And he let [it] fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations. 29 So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire; 30 They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat [was] yet in their mouths, 31 The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen [men] of Israel. 32 For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works. 33 Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble. 34 When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God. 35 And they remembered that God [was] their rock, and the high God their redeemer. 36 Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues. 37 For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant. 38 But he, [being] full of compassion, forgave [their] iniquity, and destroyed [them] not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath. 39 For he remembered that they [were but] flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again. 40 ¶ How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, [and] grieve him in the desert! 41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. 42 They remembered not his hand, [nor] the day when he delivered them from the enemy. 43 How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan: 44 And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink. 45 He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them. 46 He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust. 47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost. 48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts. 49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels [among them]. 50 He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence; 51 And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of [their] strength in the tabernacles of Ham: 52 But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. 53 And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. 54 And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, [even to] this mountain, [which] his right hand had purchased. 55 He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. 56 Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies: 57 But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow. 58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images. 59 When God heard [this], he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel: 60 So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent [which] he placed among men; 61 And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand. 62 He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance. 63 The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage. 64 Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation. 65 Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, [and] like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine. 66 And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach. 67 Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim: 68 But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved. 69 And he built his sanctuary like high [palaces], like the earth which he hath established for ever. 70 He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds: 71 From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. 72 So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.
• Ps 81:8 : 8 ¶ Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me;
• Deut 32:15 : 15 ¶ But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered [with fatness]; then he forsook God [which] made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
• 2 Kgs 17:14 : 14 Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God.
• 2 Chr 30:8 : 8 Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers [were, but] yield yourselves unto the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever: and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you.
• 2 Chr 36:13 : 13 And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the LORD God of Israel.
• Exod 15:26 : 26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I [am] the LORD that healeth thee.
• Exod 32:9 : 9 And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it [is] a stiffnecked people:
• Deut 1:26-33 : 26 Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God: 27 And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the LORD hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 28 Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people [is] greater and taller than we; the cities [are] great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there. 29 Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. 30 The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes; 31 And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place. 32 Yet in this thing ye did not believe the LORD your God, 33 Who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents [in], in fire by night, to shew you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day.
• Deut 5:29 : 29 O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!
• Deut 9:6 : 6 Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou [art] a stiffnecked people.
• Deut 9:13 : 13 Furthermore the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it [is] a stiffnecked people:
• Deut 9:23-24 : 23 Likewise when the LORD sent you from Kadeshbarnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then ye rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and ye believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice. 24 Ye have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.
• Deut 9:27 : 27 Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin: