The Great God

Thinking about Neh 8.6, this morning: And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God (KJV). I like the way the KJV translates this passage. It's interesting that the ESV figured it couldn't improve on the translation since it translates the passage the exact same way. Indeed the Hebrew reads pretty much the same except the order is: And he blessed, Ezra, the great God, which conforms to Hebrew word order.

The salient point is that we serve, we love, we worship, the great God. The Hebrew is not "a great God," but "the great God." The people who heard the words of the Scriptures that day were profoundly moved by having them read and then explained to them. Oh that we would be so moved as we read and understand them day by day.