Nehemiah 2:8

2:8 and a letter for Asaph the keeper of the king’s nature preserve, ¹  so that he will give me timber for beams for the gates of the fortress adjacent to the temple and for the city wall ²  and for the house to which I go.” So the king granted me these requests, ³  for the good hand of my God was on me.

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 3:1

The Names of the Builders

3:1 Then Eliashib the high priest and his priestly colleagues ⁴  arose and built the Sheep Gate. They dedicated ⁵  it and erected its doors, working as far as the Tower of the Hundred ⁶  and ⁷  the Tower of Hananel.

Nehemiah 3:15

3:15 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, ⁸  by the royal garden, as far as the steps that go down from the City of David.

Nehemiah 6:1

Opposition to the Rebuilding Efforts Continues

6:1 When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and no breach remained in it (even though up to that time I had not positioned doors in the gates),

Nehemiah 7:3

7:3 I ⁹  said to them, “The gates of Jerusalem must not be opened in the early morning, ¹⁰  until those who are standing guard close the doors and lock them. ¹¹  Position residents of Jerusalem as guards, some at their guard stations and some near their homes.”

Nehemiah 8:1

8:1 all the people gathered together ¹²  in the plaza which was in front of the Water Gate. They asked ¹³  Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the LORD had commanded Israel.

Nehemiah 8:3

8:3 So he read it before the plaza in front of the Water Gate from dawn till noon ¹⁴  before the men and women and those children who could understand. ¹⁵  All the people were eager to hear ¹⁶  the book of the law.

Nehemiah 13:22

13:22 Then I directed the Levites to purify themselves and come and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy.

For this please remember me, O my God, and have pity on me in keeping with your great love.

[2:8]  ¹ tn Or “forest.” So HALOT 963 s.v. פַּרְדֵּס 2.

[2:8]  ² tc One medieval Hebrew MS, the Syriac Peshitta, Vulgate, and the Arabic read here the plural וּלְחוֹמוֹת (ulÿkhomot, “walls”) against the singular וּלְחוֹמַת (ulÿkhomat) in the MT. The plural holem vav (וֹ) might have dropped out due to dittography or the plural form might have been written defectively.

[2:8]  ³ tn The Hebrew text does not include the expression “these requests,” but it is implied.

[3:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “his brothers the priests.”

[3:1]  ⁵ tn Or “consecrated” (so NASB, NRSV); KJV, ASV “sanctified”; NCV “gave it to the Lord’s service.”

[3:1]  ⁶ tc The MT adds קִדְּשׁוּהוּ (qidshuhu, “they sanctified it”). This term is repeated from the first part of the verse, probably as an intentional scribal addition to harmonize this statement with the preceding parallel statement.

[3:1]  ⁷ tc The translation reads וְעַד (vÿ’ad, “and unto”) rather than the MT reading עַד (ad, “unto”). The original vav (ו) was probably dropped accidentally due to haplography with the final vav on the immediately preceding word in the MT.

[3:15]  ⁷ 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 B.C. (cf. Isa 8:6). See BDB 1019 s.v. שִׁלֹחַ; W. L. Holladay, Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon, 372. On the etymology of the word, which is a disputed matter, see HALOT 1517 s.v. III שֶׁלַח.

[7:3]  ¹⁰ tc The present translation (along with most English versions) reads with the Qere, a Qumran text, and the ancient versions וָאֹמַר (va’omar, “and I said”) rather than the Kethib of the MT, which reads וַיֹּאמֶר (vayyo’mer, “and he said”).

[7:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “until the heat of the sun.” The phrase probably means that the gates were to be opened only after the day had progressed a bit, not at the first sign of morning light (cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, TEV, CEV). It is possible, however, that the Hebrew preposition עַד (’ad), here translated as “until,” has a more rare sense of “during.” If so, this would mean that the gates were not to be left open and unattended during the hot part of the day when people typically would be at rest (cf. NLT).

[7:3]  ¹² tn Presumably this would mean the gates were not to be opened until later in the morning and were to remain open until evening. Some, however, have understood Nehemiah’s instructions to mean that the gates were not to be left open during the hottest part of the day, but must be shut and locked while the guards are still on duty. See J. Barr, “Hebrew עַד, especially at Job i.18 and Neh vii.3,” JJS 27 (1982): 177-88.

[8:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “like one man.”

[8:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “said [to].”

[8:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “from the light till the noon of the day.”

[8:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “all who could hear with understanding.” The word “children” is understood to be implied here by a number of English versions (e.g., NAB, TEV, NLT).

[8:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the ears of all the people were toward.”