Nehemiah 2:5

2:5 and said to the king, “If the king is so inclined ¹  and if your servant has found favor in your sight, dispatch me to Judah, to the city with the graves of my ancestors, so that I can rebuild it.”

Nehemiah 2:19-20

2:19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard all this, ²  they derided us and expressed contempt toward us. They said, “What is this you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” 2:20 I responded to them by saying, “The God of heaven will prosper us. We his servants will start the rebuilding. ³  But you have no just or ancient right in Jerusalem.” ⁴ 

Nehemiah 5:5

5:5 And now, though we share the same flesh and blood as our fellow countrymen, ⁵  and our children are just like their children, ⁶  still we have found it necessary to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. ⁷  Some of our daughters have been subjected to slavery, while we are powerless to help, ⁸  since our fields and vineyards now belong to other people.” ⁹ 

Nehemiah 9:10

9:10 You performed awesome signs ¹⁰  against Pharaoh, against his servants, and against all the people of his land, for you knew that the Egyptians ¹¹  had acted presumptuously ¹²  against them. You made for yourself a name that is celebrated to this day.

Nehemiah 10:29

10:29 hereby participate with their colleagues the town leaders ¹³  and enter into a curse and an oath ¹⁴  to adhere to ¹⁵  the law of God which was given through Moses the servant of God, and to obey ¹⁶  carefully all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, ¹⁷  along with his ordinances and his statutes.

Nehemiah 11:3

11:3 These are the provincial leaders ¹⁸  who settled in Jerusalem. (While other Israelites, the priests, the Levites, the temple attendants, and the sons of the servants of Solomon settled in the cities of Judah, each on his own property in their cities,

¹ tn Heb “If upon the king it is good.” So also in v. 7.

² tn The Hebrew text does not include the words “all this,” but they have been added in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “will arise and build.” The idiom “arise and…” means to begin the action described by the second verb.

⁴ tn Heb “portion or right or remembrance.” The expression is probably a hendiatris: The first two nouns retain their full nominal function, while the third noun functions adjectivally (“right or remembrance” = “ancient right”).

⁴ tn Heb “according to the flesh of our brothers is our flesh.”

⁵ tn Heb “like their children, our children.”

⁶ tn Heb “to become slaves” (also later in this verse).

⁷ tn Heb “there is not power for our hand.” The Hebrew expression used here is rather difficult.

⁸ sn The poor among the returned exiles were being exploited by their rich countrymen. Moneylenders were loaning large amounts of money, and not only collecting interest on loans which was illegal (Lev 25:36-37; Deut 23:19-20), but also seizing pledges as collateral (Neh 5:3) which was allowed (Deut 24:10). When the debtors missed a payment, the moneylenders would seize their collateral: their fields, vineyards and homes. With no other means of income, the debtors were forced to sell their children into slavery, a common practice at this time (Neh 5:5). Nehemiah himself was one of the moneylenders (Neh 5:10), but he insisted that seizure of collateral from fellow Jewish countrymen was ethically wrong (Neh 5:9).

⁵ tn Heb “signs and wonders.” This phrase is a hendiadys. The second noun functions adjectivally, while the first noun retains its full nominal sense: “awesome signs” or “miraculous signs.”

⁶ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Egyptians) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ tn Or “arrogantly” (so NASB); NRSV “insolently.”

⁶ tn Heb “the nobles.”

⁷ tn The expression “a curse and an oath” may be a hendiadys, meaning “an oath with penalties.”

⁸ tn Heb “to walk in.”

⁹ tn Heb “keep.” See the note on the word “obey” in Neh 1:5.

¹⁰ tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

⁷ tn Heb “the heads of the province.”