Nehemia 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.

Nehemia 8:9

8:9 Then Nehemiah the governor, ⁴  Ezra the priestly scribe, ⁵  and the Levites who were imparting understanding to the people said to all of them, ⁶  “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.

[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.

[8:9]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “the priest, the scribe.”

[8:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “the people.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy.