Nehemiah 9:28-29

Therefore leftest thou them in the hand of their enemies God so abandoned them once, that he permitted the Philistines to rule over them forty years, (Judges 13:1,) unto which, perhaps, this passage refers. Many times didst thou deliver them according to thy mercies Nothing else could have moved God to do it, but his own essential goodness and mercy, they being, in all ages, inconstant in their obedience, and prone to backslide from him; and testifiedst against them By many remarkable punishments he testified how highly he was displeased with them, that he might reform them. Yet they dealt proudly Against what one would have expected should have humbled them, God's judgments; and, from time to time, they became more bold and obstinate in their sins. And withdrew the shoulder A metaphor taken from refractory oxen, that draw back, and will not submit to the yoke.