Nehemiah 1:9

1:9 But if you repent ¹  and obey ²  my commandments and do them, then even if your dispersed people are in the most remote location, ³  I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen for my name to reside.’

Nehemiah 2:17

2:17 Then I said to them, “You see the problem that we have: Jerusalem is desolate and its gates are burned. Come on! Let’s rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that this reproach will not continue.”

Nehemiah 5:7-8

5:7 I considered these things carefully ⁴  and then registered a complaint with the wealthy ⁵  and the officials. I said to them, “Each one of you is seizing the collateral ⁶  from your own countrymen!” ⁷  Because of them I called for ⁸  a great public assembly. 5:8 I said to them, “To the extent possible we have bought back our fellow Jews ⁹  who had been sold to the Gentiles. But now you yourselves want to sell your own countrymen, ¹⁰  so that we can then buy them back!” They were utterly silent, and could find nothing to say.

Nehemiah 13:21

13:21 But I warned them and said, ¹¹  “Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you repeat this, I will forcibly remove you!” ¹²  From that time on they did not show up on the Sabbath. ¹³ 

[1:9]  ¹ tn Heb “turn to me.”

[1:9]  ² tn Heb “keep.” See the note on the word “obey” in Neh 1:5.

[1:9]  ³ tn Heb “at the end of the heavens.”

[5:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “my heart was advised upon me.”

[5:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “nobles.”

[5:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “taking a creditor’s debt.” The Hebrew noun מַשָּׁא (masha’) means “interest; debt” and probably refers to the collateral (pledge) collected by a creditor (HALOT 641-42 s.v.). This particular noun form appears only in Nehemiah (5:7, 10; 10:32); however, it is related to מַשָּׁאָה (masha’ah, “contractual loan; debt; collateral”) which appears elsewhere (Deut 24:10; Prov 22:26; cf. Neh 5:11). See the note on the word “people” at the end of v. 5. The BHS editors suggest emending the MT to מָשָׂא (masa’, “burden”), following several medieval Hebrew MSS; however, the result is not entirely clear: “you are bearing a burden, a man with his brothers.”

[5:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “his brothers.”

[5:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “I gave.”

[5:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “our brothers, the Jews.”

[5:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “your brothers.”

[13:21]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text includes the words “to them,” but they have been excluded from the translation for stylistic reasons.

[13:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I will send a hand on you.”

[13:21]  ¹² sn This statement contains a great deal of restrained humor. The author clearly takes pleasure in the effectiveness of the measures that he had enacted.