Nehemiah 9:4

4. Stairs Margin, scaffold. Probably the same platform, or “pulpit of wood,” used for the same purpose on the first day of the month.

Nehemiah 8:4.

The Levites By comparing the names in this verse with those in Nehemiah 9:5, we find the name Bani twice in this verse and once in the next. The names Bunni and Chenani of this verse are not found in Nehemiah 9:5, and Hashabniah, Hodijah, and Pethahiah, do not appear in Nehemiah 9:4. Keil attributes these differences to a clerical error, but this is unnecessary. Some of the Levites who called upon the people to stand up and worship may not have been different from those who cried with a loud voice unto the Lord their God. We suppose that a large part of the worship of the latter half of the day was liturgical and antiphonal, and the penitential prayer that follows was probably prepared for the occasion, and recited by the Levites and the people alternately. Some parts may have been antiphonally recited by Levites alone, one party responding to the other. Other parts may have been recited by the people in response to the priests and Levites.

The psalm that follows is a most impressive and admirable specimen of penitential prayer. With it should be compared the ninth chapter of David and Psalms 106:0. It recounts and bewails the numerous sins of Israel which brought upon them the righteous judgments of God. The Septuagint represents it as the prayer of Ezra, and introduces Nehemiah 9:6 with the words, and Ezra said, and Bertheau adopts this reading as the probable original Hebrew text. It is very probable that the prayer was composed by Ezra for this occasion, and it might have been uttered by him, or any other individual, in the name and behalf of the whole nation; but the call for the people to “stand up and bless Jehovah,” and the general form and phraseology of the prayer, place it among the liturgical psalms of the Old Testament, and show it specially suitable to be used by the whole congregation.