Nehemiah 9:31

for thy great mercies" sake R.V. in thy manifold mercies. The emphasis on the variety of the mercy even more than on its magnitude. Cf. Lamentations 3:22-23, -It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning."

thou didst not utterly consume them R.V. thou didst not make a full end of them (LXX. οὐκ ἐποίησας αὐτούς συντέλειαν. Vulg. -non fecisti eos in consumptionem." For the phrase see Jeremiah 4:17; Jeremiah 5:10; Jeremiah 5:18; Jeremiah 46:28; Ezekiel 20:17. The promise that though grievously humbled, Israel should not be utterly consumed, ever animated the courage of the prophets, cf. Leviticus 26:44, -And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them;" Isaiah 6:13, -As a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remaineth, when they are felled."

gracious and merciful The same words in Heb. as Nehemiah 9:17 -gracious and full of compassion."