The Promise of Restoration (Nehemiah 1:1–11)
1 UST If, despite Yahweh our God blessing you in all the ways I have just told you about,{ you disobey him, and when} he curses you in all the ways I have just told you about, and you are living in the countries to which he will have scattered you, you may realize what you have done. BSB BSB: “When all these things come upon you—the blessings and curses I have set before you—and you call them to mind in all the nations to which the LORD your God has banished you,
2 UST Then, if you and your children begin to worship Yahweh our God again and faithfully obey all that I have today commanded you to do, BSB BSB: and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey His voice with all your heart and all your soul according to everything I am giving you today,
3 UST he will act mercifully toward you by rescuing you. He will bring you back from the nations to which he scattered you. BSB BSB: then He will restore you from captivity and have compassion on you and gather you from all the nations to which the LORD your God has scattered you.
4 UST Even if he scatters you to the most distant places on the earth, Yahweh our God will gather you from there and bring you back to your land. BSB BSB: Even if you have been banished to the farthest horizon, He will gather you and return you from there.
5 UST He will enable you to possess again the land where your ancestors lived. He will cause you to be more prosperous and more numerous than you are now. BSB BSB: And the LORD your God will bring you into the land your fathers possessed, and you will take possession of it. He will cause you to prosper and multiply more than your fathers.
6 UST Yahweh our God will change your and your children’ s inner beings, with the result that you will love him with all that you desire and with all that you feel and that you will continue to live{ in that land}. BSB BSB: The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.
7 UST Yahweh our God will send all the disasters{ that I have told you about} on your enemies and on those who oppressed you. BSB BSB: Then the LORD your God will put all these curses upon your enemies who hate you and persecute you.
8 UST As you did before, you will do what Yahweh wants you to do and you will obey all that I have commanded you today. BSB BSB: And you will again obey the voice of the LORD and follow all His commandments I am giving you today.
9 UST Yahweh our God will cause you to be very prosperous in all that you do. You will have many children and many cattle, and you will produce abundant crops. He will again be happy to enable you to prosper, just like he was happy to enable your ancestors to prosper. BSB BSB: So the LORD your God will make you abound in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your land. Indeed, the LORD will again delight in your prosperity, as He delighted in that of your fathers,
10 UST But he will do those things only if you do what he has told you to do, and only if you obey all his rules and regulations that I have written about in this instruction book, and only if you again worship Yahweh with all that you desire and with all that you feel. BSB BSB: if you obey the LORD your God by keeping His commandments and statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
The Choice of Life or Death 11 UST The commands that I am giving to you today are not very difficult for you to obey, and they are not difficult to know. BSB BSB: For this commandment I give you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.
12 UST They are not hiding in heaven. You do not need to say,‘Someone will need to go up to heaven for us and bring them back to us, in order than we can hear them and obey them.’ BSB BSB: It is not in heaven, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will ascend into heaven to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’
13 UST And they are not on the other side of the sea. You do not need to say,‘Someone will need to cross the sea for us and bring them back to us, in order than we can hear them and obey them.’ BSB BSB: And it is not beyond the sea, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’
14 UST No, his commands are here with you. You have memorized them and you can tell them to anyone. So you can easily obey them. BSB BSB: But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may obey it.
15 UST So listen! Today I am allowing you to choose between doing what is good resulting in you living and doing what is evil resulting in you dying. BSB BSB: See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, as well as death and disaster.
16 UST I say again, if you love Yahweh our God, conduct your lives as he wants you to do and obey everything he commands you, you will prosper and become very numerous. Yahweh our God will bless you in the land that you are about to enter and possess. BSB BSB: For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and increase, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.
17 UST But if you stop worshiping Yahweh, and if you refuse to obey what he says, and if you allow others to persuade you to worship other gods, BSB BSB: But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, but are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them,
18 UST I am warning you today that you will soon die. Your people will not live for very long in the land that you are about to cross the Jordan River to enter and possess. BSB BSB: I declare to you today that you will surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.
19 UST I am requesting everyone in heaven and on the earth to testify to you, that today I am allowing you to choose whether you want to live for a long time or to soon die, whether you want Yahweh to bless you or to curse you. So choose to obey and therefore live; choose for you and for your descendants. BSB BSB: I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, so that you and your descendants may live,
20 UST Decide to love Yahweh our God, to obey him and to always be faithful to him. If you do that, he will enable you and your descendants to live for a long time in the land that Yahweh solemnly promised to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give to them.” BSB BSB: and that you may love the LORD your God, obey Him, and hold fast to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.