1. Nehemiah 1:9 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What is the function of the words “and keep my commandments and do them”?

Nehemiah 1:9 (ESV)

9 but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’

Here we find the inverse of Nehemiah 1:7. As acting very corruptly received colour from the words have not kept the commandments, here the word return receives colour from the additional words and keep my commandments and do them. The turn-around implied in the word return demonstrates itself through a very changed pattern of behaviour (repentance).