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

What does the term “outcasts” mean?

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.’

The term itself means to banish, drive out (2 Samuel 14:14; 2 Chronicles 13:9). Though in theory one could voluntarily banish oneself, the form of the verb used makes clear that banishment is not a matter of choice. By adding the pronoun your, Nehemiah underscores that God continues to own these banished Israelites, even though he drove them out from their God-given inheritance.