When God Wanted to Destroy the Chosen People by Gili Kugler

Author:Gili Kugler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Published: 2019-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

6.3.2 A small request

Equally negligible and inconsequential is the appeal to God in the prayer in Nehemiah 9. The speakers make a minor request at the beginning of their appeal: “Now therefore, our God… do not treat lightly all the hardship that has come upon us…” (v. 32). Unlike the pleas for national salvation in Daniel (9:16–17) and Ezra (9:8–9), and the request for personal success in the confessional prayer in Nehemiah 1 (v. 11), the request in Nehemiah 9 does not yearn for any fundamental change in the speakers’ conditions. Their request is only that their hardships not be treated lightly (see אל ימעט לפניך, v. 32), so that they may achieve recognition for the tribulations that occurred to the people. Instead of words of supplication, the main content of the prayer in Nehemiah 9 is a review of the past (vv. 6–31), focusing on God’s deeds for the people. As such, while mentioning troubles that have visited the people in the past and the present, the prayer makes no specific request for change in the status quo.

The request for an acknowledgment of the people’s suffering reflects the hope that God will regard the tribulations that have occurred so far as sufficient. Such an attitude is appropriate in a record made during difficulties that threaten to deteriorate. This is less likely to characterize the period defined in the chapter’s opening verses, namely the period of the restoration, and may be better suited to circumstances when the speakers struggled to maintain independence and resilience while still in their land. This possibility ties in with our view about the dating of the prayer, based on the historiographical information it contains and its linguistic characteristics.

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