Nehemia 1:6-7

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 ¹  against you – both I myself and my family ²  have sinned. 1:7 We have behaved corruptly against you, not obeying the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments that you commanded your servant Moses.

Nehemia 4:13

4:13 So I stationed people at the lower places behind the wall in the exposed places. ³  I stationed the people by families, with their swords, spears, and bows.

Nehemia 5:17

5:17 There were 150 Jews and officials who dined with me routinely, ⁴  in addition to those who came to us from the nations ⁵  all around us.

Nehemia 7:3

7:3 I ⁶  said to them, “The gates of Jerusalem must not be opened in the early morning, ⁷  until those who are standing guard close the doors and lock them. ⁸  Position residents of Jerusalem as guards, some at their guard stations and some near their homes.”

Nehemia 8:15

8:15 and that they should make a proclamation and disseminate this message ⁹  in all their cities and in Jerusalem: ¹⁰  “Go to the hill country and bring back olive branches and branches of wild olive trees, myrtle trees, date palms, and other leafy trees to construct temporary shelters, as it is written.”

Nehemia 8:18

8:18 Ezra ¹¹  read in the book of the law of God day by day, from the first day to the last. ¹²  They observed the festival for seven days, and on the eighth day they held an assembly ¹³  as was required. ¹⁴ 

Nehemia 9:13-14

9:13 “You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven. You provided them with just judgments, true laws, and good statutes and commandments. 9:14 You made known to them your holy Sabbath; you issued commandments, statutes, and law to them through ¹⁵  Moses your servant.

Nehemia 9:26

9:26 “Nonetheless they grew disobedient and rebelled against you; they disregarded your law. ¹⁶  They killed your prophets who had solemnly admonished them in order to cause them to return to you. They committed atrocious blasphemies.

Nehemia 9:29

9:29 And you solemnly admonished them in order to return them to your law, but they behaved presumptuously and did not obey your commandments. They sinned against your ordinances – those by which an individual, if he obeys them, ¹⁷  will live. They boldly turned from you; ¹⁸  they rebelled ¹⁹  and did not obey.

Nehemia 10:29

10:29 hereby participate with their colleagues the town leaders ²⁰  and enter into a curse and an oath ²¹  to adhere to ²²  the law of God which was given through Moses the servant of God, and to obey ²³  carefully all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, ²⁴  along with his ordinances and his statutes.

Nehemia 10:34

10:34 “We – the priests, the Levites, and the people – have cast lots concerning the wood offerings, to bring them to the temple of our God according to our families ²⁵  at the designated times year by year to burn on the altar of the LORD our God, as is written in the law.

Nehemia 10:36

10:36 We also accept responsibility, as is written in the law, for bringing the firstborn of our sons and our cattle and the firstborn of our herds and of our flocks to the temple of our God, to the priests who are ministering in the temple of our God.

Nehemia 11:23

11:23 For they were under royal orders ²⁶  which determined their activity day by day. ²⁷ 

Nehemia 12:24

12:24 And the leaders of the Levites were Hashabiah, Sherebiah, Jeshua son of Kadmiel, and their colleagues, who stood opposite them to offer praise and thanks, one contingent corresponding to the other, as specified by ²⁸  David the man of God.

Nehemia 12:31

12:31 I brought the leaders of Judah up on top of the wall, and I appointed two large choirs to give thanks. One was to proceed ²⁹  on the top of the wall southward toward the Dung Gate.

Nehemia 12:44-45

12:44 On that day men were appointed over the storerooms for the contributions, first fruits, and tithes, to gather into them from ³⁰  the fields of the cities the portions prescribed by the law for the priests and the Levites, for the people of Judah ³¹  took delight in the priests and Levites who were ministering. ³²  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 ³³  his son Solomon.

Nehemia 13:3

13:3 When they heard the law, they removed from Israel all who were of mixed ancestry.

Nehemia 13:30-31

13:30 So I purified them of everything foreign, and I assigned specific ³⁴  duties to the priests and the Levites. 13:31 I also provided for ³⁵  the wood offering at the appointed times and also for the first fruits.

Please remember me for good, O my God.

[1:6]  ¹ tn Heb “have sinned.” For stylistic reasons – to avoid redundancy in English – this was translated as “committed.”

[1:6]  ² tn Heb “the house of my father.”

[4:13]  ³ tc The MT preserves the anomalous Kethib form צְחִחִיִּים (tsÿkhikhiyyim); the Qere reads צְחִיחִים (tsÿkhikhim) which is preferred (BDB 850 s.v. צָהִיחַ; HALOT 1018 s.v. *צָהִיחַ).

[4:13]  tn The meaning of the Hebrew term צְחִיחִים (tsÿkhikhim) here is uncertain. Elsewhere (Ezek 24:7, 8; 26:4, 14) it refers to a shining or glaring surface of a rock (BDB 850 s.v. צָהִיחַ; HALOT 1018 s.v. *צָהִיחַ), but here it refers to an exposed or vulnerable portion of the wall: “open positions of the wall” (HALOT 1018 s.v. 2).

[5:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “who were gathered around us at my table.”

[5:17]  ⁵ tn Or “from the Gentiles.” The same Hebrew word can refer to “the Gentiles” or “the nations.” Cf. the phrase in 6:16.

[7:3]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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.

[8:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “a voice.”

[8:15]  ¹⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[8:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “He”; the referent (Ezra) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:18]  ¹² tn Heb “the last day.”

[8:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “on the eighth day an assembly.” The words “they held” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[8:18]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “according to the judgment.”

[9:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “by the hand of.”

[9:26]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “they cast your law behind their backs.”

[9:29]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “if a man keep.” See note on the word “obey” in Neh 1:5.

[9:29]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “they gave a stubborn shoulder.”

[9:29]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “they stiffened their neck.”

[10:29]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the nobles.”

[10:29]  ²¹ tn The expression “a curse and an oath” may be a hendiadys, meaning “an oath with penalties.”

[10:29]  ²² tn Heb “to walk in.”

[10:29]  ²³ tn Heb “keep.” See the note on the word “obey” in Neh 1:5.

[10:29]  ²⁴ tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[10:34]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the house of our fathers.”

[11:23]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the commandment of the king was over them.”

[11:23]  ²⁷ tn Heb “a thing of a day in its day.”

[12:24]  ²⁸ tn Heb “in [accord with] the commandment of.”

[12:31]  ²⁹ tc The translation reads וְהָאַחַת הֹלֶכֶת (vÿha’akhat holekhet, “and one was proceeding”) rather than the MT reading וְתַהֲלֻכֹת (vÿtahalukhot, “and processions”).

[12:44]  ³⁰ tc The translation reads מִשְּׂדֶי (missÿde, “from the fields”) rather than the MT reading לִשְׂדֵי (lisdey, “to the fields”).

[12:44]  ³¹ tn Heb “for Judah.” The words “the people of” have been supplied in the translation for clarity, since “Judah” is a proper name as well as a place name.

[12:44]  ³² tn Heb “standing.”

[12:45]  ³³ 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.

[13:30]  ³⁴ tn Heb “a man in his work.”

[13:31]  ³⁵ 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.