Nehemiah 9:25 - Exposition

They took strong cities . As Jericho, Ai, Libnah, Lachish, Hazer, Hebron, etc. A fat land . Compare Numbers 14:7 , Numbers 14:8 ; Deuteronomy 8:7-9 ; 2 Kings 18:32 . Houses full of all goods . See Deuteronomy 6:11 . Fruit trees in abundance . The fruit trees of Palestine are, besides the vine and the olive, the fig tree, the carob or locust tree ( ceratonia siliqua ) , the quince, the apple, the almond, the walnut, the peach, the apricot, the mulberry, the sycamore fig, the prickly pear, the pomegranate, and the orange. Date-palms also were anciently abundant in the valley of the Jordan. They … became fat , Compare Deuteronomy 32:15 and Jeremiah 5:28 , the only other places where the expression here used occurs. The comparison will show that dispraise is intended—"they grew wanton and self-indulgent." Delighted themselves. Rather, "luxuriated" ( ἐτρύφησαν , LXX .).