Discovery BoxNehemiah 1:9
Context1:9 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 3:15
Context3:15 Shallun son of Col-Hozeh, head of the district of Mizpah, worked on the Fountain Gate. He rebuilt it, put on its roof, and positioned its doors, its bolts, and its bars. In addition, he rebuilt the wall of the Pool of Siloam, 4 by the royal garden, as far as the steps that go down from the City of David.
Nehemiah 5:5
Context5:5 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 5:7-8
Context5:7 I considered these things carefully 10 and then registered a complaint with the wealthy 11 and the officials. I said to them, “Each one of you is seizing the collateral 12 from your own countrymen!” 13 Because of them I called for 14 a great public assembly. 5:8 I said to them, “To the extent possible we have bought back our fellow Jews 15 who had been sold to the Gentiles. But now you yourselves want to sell your own countrymen, 16 so that we can then buy them back!” They were utterly silent, and could find nothing to say.
Nehemiah 8:9
Context8:9 Then Nehemiah the governor, 17 Ezra the priestly scribe, 18 and the Levites who were imparting understanding to the people said to all of them, 19 “This day is holy to the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping when they heard the words of the law.
Nehemiah 9:15
Context9:15 You provided bread from heaven for them in their time of hunger, and you brought forth water from the rock for them in their time of thirst. You told them to enter in order to possess the land that you had sworn 20 to give them.
Nehemiah 9:26
Context9:26 “Nonetheless they grew disobedient and rebelled against you; they disregarded your law. 21 They killed your prophets who had solemnly admonished them in order to cause them to return to you. They committed atrocious blasphemies.
Nehemiah 10:31
Context10:31 We will not buy 22 on the Sabbath or on a holy day from the neighboring peoples who bring their wares and all kinds of grain to sell on the Sabbath day. We will let the fields lie fallow every seventh year, and we will cancel every loan. 23
Nehemiah 10:39
Context10:39 The Israelites and the Levites will bring the contribution of the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil to the storerooms where the utensils of the sanctuary are kept, and where the priests who minister stay, along with the gatekeepers and the singers. We will not neglect the temple of our God.”
Nehemiah 13:18
Context13:18 Isn’t this the way your ancestors 24 acted, causing our God to bring on them and on this city all this misfortune? And now you are causing even more wrath on Israel, profaning the Sabbath like this!”
[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.”
[3:15] 4 tn The Hebrew word translated “Siloam” is הַשֶּׁלַח (hashelakh, “water-channel”; cf. ASV, NASB, NRSV, TEV, CEV “Shelah”). It apparently refers to the Pool of Siloam whose water supply came from the Gihon Spring via Hezekiah’s Tunnel built in 701
[5:5] 7 tn Heb “according to the flesh of our brothers is our flesh.”
[5:5] 8 tn Heb “like their children, our children.”
[5:5] 9 tn Heb “to become slaves” (also later in this verse).
[5:5] 10 tn Heb “there is not power for our hand.” The Hebrew expression used here is rather difficult.
[5:5] 11 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).
[5:7] 10 tn Heb “my heart was advised upon me.”
[5:7] 12 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
[5:7] 13 tn Heb “his brothers.”
[5:8] 13 tn Heb “our brothers, the Jews.”
[5:8] 14 tn Heb “your brothers.”
[8:9] 16 tc The unexpected reference to Nehemiah here has led some scholars to suspect that the phrase “Nehemiah the governor” is a later addition to the text and not original.
[8:9] 17 tn Heb “the priest, the scribe.”
[8:9] 18 tn Heb “the people.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy.
[9:15] 19 tn Heb “had lifted your hand.”
[9:26] 22 tn Heb “they cast your law behind their backs.”
[10:31] 26 tn Heb “debt of every hand,” an idiom referring to the hand that holds legally binding contractual agreements.
