Nehemiah 9:8

And foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give [it, I say], to his seed, and hast performed thy words; for thou [art] righteous:

Ver. 8. And foundest his heart faithful] He must needs find it so who had made it so. Otherwise Abraham, as well as any other, might well say, Horreo quicquid de meo est, ut meus sim (Bern.). The natural heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, &c., a bundle of sin (folly is bound up, &c.), a treasury of sin (an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart, &c.), a raging sea of sin, Isaiah 57:20, a world of wickedness, James 3:6, If any good be in it, it is but as a drop of rose water in a bowl of poison; where falling, it is presently corrupted.

And madest a covenant with him] To be his God, and the God of his seed. This was divini mellis alveare, the beehive of heavenly honey; this was more than to be made monarch of the whole world. See Genesis 17:20,21 .

To give the land of the Canaanites, &c.] Who had filled that good land from one end to the other with their uncleanness, Ezra 9:11, and were therefore worthily rooted out of it. So Josephus reports that in his time these Jews were grown so wicked, that if the Romans had not destroyed them, without doubt either the earth would have swallowed them up, or fire from heaven have consumed them. Bede saith of the ancient Britons (immediately before their destruction by the Saxons) that they were come to a very great height of wickedness; so as to shame the counsel of the poor, because the Lord was his refuge, Psalms 14:6 .

And hast performed thy words] Of many promisers it may be said, as Tertullian of the peacock, all in changeable colours: as oft changed as moved. Sertorius paid his promises with fair words. Antiochus was surnamed Doson, because he oft said, I will give you this, or that, but never did. God is none such.

For thou art righteous] That is, faithful: for there is a twofold justice of God; 1. Of equity: 2. Of fidelity. See 1Jn 1:9 Revelation 10:1, where Christ is said to have a rainbow on his head; to show that he is faithful and constant in his promises.