Nehemiah 9:19

Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they should go.

Ver. 19. Yet thou in thy manifold mercies] Nothing else could have kept him from turning them off, and saying to them, as once Jephthah did, Judges 11:7, "Behold, ye have thrust me out; and do ye come unto me in your distress? Go, cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation," Judges 10:14

Forsookest them not in the wilderness] And yet he was near the matter when he would own them no longer, but even fathered them upon Moses, saying, Exodus 32:7, "Thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves."

The pillar of cloud departed not] It is sad with a people when God sends for his love tokens (his ordinances); when they have sinned away their light, and so wiped off all their comfortables.