Nehemiah 1:4

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

Nehemiah 4:4

4:4 Hear, O our God, for we are despised! Return their reproach on their own head! Reduce them to plunder in a land of exile!

Nehemiah 4:15

4:15 It so happened that when our adversaries heard that we were aware of these matters, ²  God frustrated their intentions. Then all of us returned to the wall, each to his own work.

Nehemiah 5:9

5:9 Then I ³  said, “The thing that you are doing is wrong! ⁴  Should you not conduct yourselves ⁵  in the fear of our God in order to avoid the reproach of the Gentiles who are our enemies?

Nehemiah 6:12

6:12 I recognized the fact that God had not sent him, for he had spoken the prophecy against me as a hired agent of Tobiah and Sanballat. ⁶ 

Nehemiah 6:14

6:14 Remember, O my God, Tobiah and Sanballat in light of these actions of theirs – also Noadiah the prophetess and the other prophets who were trying to scare me!

Nehemiah 7:2

7:2 I then put in charge over Jerusalem ⁷  my brother Hanani and Hananiah ⁸  the chief of the citadel, for he was a faithful man and feared God more than many do.

Nehemiah 8:8

8:8 They read from the book of God’s law, explaining it ⁹  and imparting insight. Thus the people ¹⁰  gained understanding from what was read.

Nehemiah 9:4

9:4 Then the Levites – Jeshua, Binnui, ¹¹  Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Kenani – stood on the steps and called out loudly ¹²  to the LORD their God.

Nehemiah 9:18

9:18 even when they made a cast image of a calf for themselves and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up from Egypt,’ or when they committed atrocious ¹³  blasphemies.

Nehemiah 10:32

10:32 We accept responsibility for fulfilling ¹⁴  the commands to give ¹⁵  one third of a shekel each year for the work of the temple ¹⁶  of our God,

Nehemiah 11:11

11:11 Seraiah son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, supervisor in the temple of God,

Nehemiah 12:36

12:36 and his colleagues – Shemaiah, Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Judah, and Hanani – with musical instruments of ¹⁷  David the man of God. (Ezra the scribe led them.) ¹⁸ 

Nehemiah 12:45-46

12:45 They performed the service of their God and the service of purification, along with the singers and gatekeepers, according to the commandment of David and ¹⁹  his son Solomon. 12:46 For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there had been directors ²⁰  for the singers and for the songs of praise and thanks to God.

Nehemiah 13:2

13:2 for they had not met the Israelites with food ²¹  and water, but instead had hired Balaam to curse them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into blessing.)

Nehemiah 13:4

13:4 But prior to this time, Eliashib the priest, a relative of Tobiah, had been appointed over the storerooms ²²  of the temple of our God.

Nehemiah 13:11

13:11 So I registered a complaint with the leaders, asking “Why is the temple of God neglected?” Then I gathered them and reassigned them to their positions. ²³ 

Nehemiah 13:31

13:31 I also provided for ²⁴  the wood offering at the appointed times and also for the first fruits.

Please remember me for good, O my God.

[1:4]  ¹ 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.

[4:15]  ² tn Heb “it was known to us.”

[5:9]  ³ tc The translation reads with the Qere and the ancient versions וָאוֹמַר (va’omar, “and I said”) rather than the MT Kethib, וַיֹּאמֶר (vayyo’mer, “and he said”).

[5:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “not good.” The statement “The thing…is not good” is an example of tapeinosis, a figurative expression which emphasizes the intended point (“The thing…is wrong!”) by negating its opposite.

[5:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “[should you not] walk.”

[6:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “and Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.”

[7:2]  ⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[7:2]  ⁶ tn Some have suggested that “Hananiah” is another name for Hanani, Nehemiah’s brother, so that only one individual is mentioned here. However, the third person plural in v. 3 indicates two people are in view.

[8:8]  ⁶ tn The exact meaning of the pual participle מְפֹרָשׁ (mÿforash) in this verse is uncertain. The basic sense of the Hebrew word seems to be “to make distinct.” The word may also have the sense of “to divide in parts,” “to interpret,” or “to translate.” The context of Neh 8:8 does not decisively clarify how the participle is to be understood here. It probably refers to the role of the Levites as those who explained or interpreted the portions of biblical text that had been publicly read on this occasion. A different option, however, is suggested by the translation distincte (“distinctly”) of the Vulgate (cf. KJV, ASV). If the Hebrew word means “distinctly” here, it would imply that the readers paid particular attention to such things as word-grouping and pronunciation so as to be sure that the listeners had every opportunity to understand the message that was being read. Yet another view is found in the Talmud, which understands translation of the Hebrew text into Aramaic to be what is in view here. The following explanation of Neh 8:8 is found in b. Megillah 3a: “‘And they read in the book, in the law of God’: this indicates the [Hebrew] text; ‘with an interpretation’: this indicates the targum; ‘and they gave the sense’: this indicates the verse stops; ‘and caused them to understand the reading’: this indicates the accentuation, or, according to another version, the Masoretic notes.” However, this ancient rabbinic view that the origins of the Targum are found in Neh 8:8 is debatable. It is not clear that the practice of paraphrasing the Hebrew biblical text into Aramaic in order to accommodate the needs of those Jews who were not at home in the Hebrew language developed this early. The translation of מְפֹרָשׁ adopted above (i.e., “explaining it”) understands the word to have in mind an explanatory function (cf. NAB, NCV, TEV, NLT) rather than one of translation.

[8:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:4]  ⁷ tc Heb “Bani.” The translation reads “Binnui” (so also NAB) rather than the MT reading “Bani.” Otherwise there are two individuals with the same name in this verse. The name “Binnui” appears, for example, in Neh 10:10.

[9:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “in a great voice.”

[9:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “great.”

[10:32]  ⁹ tn Heb “cause to stand on us.”

[10:32]  ¹⁰ tc The MT reads “to give upon us.” However, the term עָלֵינוּ (’alenu, “upon us”) should probably be deleted, following a few medieval Hebrew MSS, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Vulgate.

[10:32]  ¹¹ tn Heb “house” (also in vv. 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39).

[12:36]  ¹⁰ tn Or “prescribed by” (NIV, NLT); TEV “of the kind played by.” The precise relationship of these musical instruments to David is not clear.

[12:36]  ¹¹ tn Heb “was before them.”

[12:45]  ¹¹ tc With many medieval Hebrew MSS and the ancient versions the translation reads the conjunction (“and”). It is absent in the Leningrad MS that forms the textual basis for BHS.

[12:46]  ¹² tn Heb “heads.” The translation reads with the Qere the plural רֹאשֵׁי (ro’shey, “heads”) rather than the Kethib singular רֹאשׁ (ro’sh, “head”) of the MT.

[13:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “bread.” The Hebrew term is generic here, however, referring to more than bread alone.

[13:4]  ¹⁴ tc The translation reads the plural rather than the singular of the MT.

[13:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and I stood them on their standing.”

[13:31]  ¹⁶ tn The words “I also provided for” are not included in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.