Israel · Restoration — praying the promise back
Nehemiah 1:8-9
Moses (cited) · ~445 BC · Status: Fulfilled · Confidence: 65%
“Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations: But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.”
King James Version · the opening — all 2 verses are below
A millennium after Moses, Nehemiah quotes him back to God: 'Remember… the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you… but if ye turn unto me… yet will I gather them.' The scatter-clause had happened; Nehemiah stands on the gather-clause — and the walls go up.
Read the whole passage — all 2 verses (KJV)
1:8Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations:
1:9But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.
Fulfillment References
Deuteronomy 30:1-5 Leviticus 26:40-45 Nehemiah 6:15-16
How Traditions Read This Prophecy
Apostolic (Oneness) PentecostalPrayer that quotes the promise is prayer that prevails — Nehemiah's model: confess (v.6-7), cite (v.8-9), then act. Fifty-two days later the wall stood.
JewishA paradigm of prayer built on Torah citation; the gathering clause of Deut. 30 remains central to the daily liturgy's hope.
CatholicScripture praying Scripture: the servant holds God to His own word, and God honors the appeal.
ProtestantThe Persian-era Jew treats a Mosaic text as binding contract — evidence of how early and how literally the covenant promises were read.
AcademicNehemiah's memoir cites Deut. 30's restoration formula from memory-conflation with Lev. 26 — a window into fifth-century Torah usage predating fixed canon debates.
Scholarship & Sources
The Deut. 30/Lev. 26 conflation is discussed in Williamson (Ezra, Nehemiah, WBC); Neh. 6:15-16 records even the enemies conceding 'this work was wrought of our God.'
Open the full interactive entry →
Audio narration (listen to this prophecy read aloud), cross-references, Hebrew/Greek, Dead Sea Scrolls notes, a prophetic timeline, network maps, study tools and multi-tradition analysis in the interactive explorer.