Bible Strands
Nehemiah 9:21
For forty years You sustained them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prayer leader addresses the assembled Israelites during a corporate confession, recounting God’s historical provision while the community stands in repentance.
The words — כִּלְכַּלְתָּם (kil.kal.Tam) translates literally as “you sustained them,” and חָסֵרוּ (cha.Seru) means “they were lacking.”
The thread — This description parallels Deuteronomy 8:4 and 29:5, which record the identical forty-year wilderness provision, while Deuteronomy 2:7 notes God’s continuous blessing throughout that journey.
Why it lands — The text states that physical sustenance and unbroken clothing occurred without human lack, requiring the reader to attribute present security to divine provision rather than self-sufficiency.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 2:7 Indeed, the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. The LORD your God has been with you these forty years, and you have lacked nothing.
- Deuteronomy 8:4 Your clothing did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.
- Deuteronomy 29:5 For forty years I led you in the wilderness, yet your clothes and sandals did not wear out.
- Psalms 34:10 Young lions go lacking and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
- Exodus 16:35 The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land where they could settle; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.
- Numbers 14:33 Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.
- Deuteronomy 8:2 Remember that these forty years the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments.
- Amos 5:25 Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
- Acts 13:18 He endured their conduct for about forty years in the wilderness.