but if ye return unto me, and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts were in the uttermost part of the heavens, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen, to cause my name to dwell there.
Nehemiah 1:7 we have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses.
Nehemiah 1:8 Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye trespass, I will scatter you abroad among the peoples:
Nehemiah 1:9 but if ye return unto me, and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts were in the uttermost part of the heavens, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen, to cause my name to dwell there.
Nehemiah 1:10 Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.
Nehemiah 1:11 O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who delight to fear thy name; and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. Now I was cupbearer to the king.
The verse centers on "return unto me", "keep", "commandments", "though", "outcasts", "uttermost", "part", and "heavens". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "return unto me" and "keep", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 8's "Remember I beseech thee the word that..." into verse 10's "Now these are thy servants and thy...", so "return unto me" and "keep" belong inside that flow. In Nehemiah context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.
A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "return unto me" and "keep" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.