John Trapp on Nehemiah 9:1

CHAP. IX. Verſe 1. Now in the twentieth and fourth day]

A Day after the feaſt of Tabernacles, they keep a ſolemne faſt: Ʋſque adeo nihil eſt, ex omni parte; beatum. There is in this preſent life an interchange of all things, a ſucceſſion of feaſting and faſting. Of the beſt, whileſt here it may be ſaid, as Pliny doth of Metellus, Infelix dici non debet, felix non poteſt: unhappy you cannot call him; happy you may not.Lib. 7. cap. 47. One compareth him to the Arke, which was ever tranſportative, till ſettled in Solomons Temple: Another to quickſilver, which hath in it ſelf a principle of motion, but not of reſt.

The children of Iſrael were aſſembled with faſting] As Epaminondas walked heavily the day after his triumph. Deadneſſe of ſpirit is apt to follow our livelieſt joyes: but that muſt be lookt too, and ſecurity prevented, which is wont to ſeize upon men after holy duties; like as wormes and waſpes eate the ſweeteſt fruits. Theſe faſters had wept at the hearing of the Law, and were ſtilled by the Levites, chap. 8.11. becauſe it was unſeaſonable. Now the feaſt being over, and their hearts yet full of grief for their great ſin in taking ſtrange wives, (not yet put away, though they had vowed to do it, Ezra 10.3. &c.) they firſt put away thoſe wives on the twenty third day, and then humble themſelves by faſting and prayer on this twenty fourth day; being wrought thereunto by the reading of the Law, as is implyed in the next verſe.

And with ſackcloth] As acknowledging themſelves unworthy of the courſeſt clothing: and that, but for ſhame, they would have ſtript themſelves naked.

And earth upon them] As thoſe that had forfeited all, and deſerved to be as far under ground, as now they were above.