Nehemiah 2:4

2:4 The king responded, ¹  “What is it you are seeking?” Then I quickly prayed to the God of heaven

Nehemiah 4:9

4:9 So we prayed to our God and stationed a guard to protect against them ²  both day and night.

Nehemiah 1:4

1:4 When I heard these things I sat down abruptly, ³  crying and mourning for several days. I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Nehemiah 1:6

1:6 may your ear be attentive and your eyes be open to hear the prayer of your servant that I am praying to you today throughout both day and night on behalf of your servants the Israelites. I am confessing the sins of the Israelites that we have committed ⁴  against you – both I myself and my family ⁵  have sinned.

¹ tn Heb “said to me.”

² tn Heb “against them.” The words “to protect” are added in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness. Some emend MT עֲלֵיהֶם (’alehem, “against them”) to עָלֶיהָ (’aleha, “against it,” i.e., Jerusalem).

³ tn Heb “sat down.” Context suggests that this was a rather sudden action, resulting from the emotional shock of the unpleasant news, so “abruptly” has been supplied in the present translation.

⁴ tn Heb “have sinned.” For stylistic reasons – to avoid redundancy in English – this was translated as “committed.”

⁵ tn Heb “the house of my father.”