Nehemiah 4:9

4:9 So we prayed to our God and stationed a guard to protect against them ¹  both day and night.

Nehemiah 6:10

6:10 Then I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel. He was confined to his home. ²  He said, “Let’s set up a time to meet in the house of God, within the temple. Let’s close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. It will surely be at night that they will come to kill you.”

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 ³  against you – both I myself and my family ⁴  have sinned.

¹ 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).

² tn Heb “shut in.” The reason for his confinement is not stated. BDB 783 s.v. עָצַר suggests that it had to do with the fulfillment of a vow or was related to an issue of ceremonial uncleanness.

³ tn Heb “have sinned.” For stylistic reasons – to avoid redundancy in English – this was translated as “committed.”

⁴ tn Heb “the house of my father.”