Nehemia 9:18

9:18 even when they made a cast image of a calf for themselves and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up from Egypt,’ or when they committed atrocious ¹  blasphemies.

Nehemia 5:15

5:15 But the former governors who preceded me had burdened the people and had taken food and wine from them, in addition to ²  forty shekels of silver. Their associates were also domineering over the people. But I did not behave in this way, due to my fear of God.

Nehemia 9:6

9:6 You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, ³  along with all their multitude of stars, ⁴  the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You impart life to them all, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.

Nehemia 6:7

6:7 You have also established prophets to announce ⁵  in Jerusalem ⁶  on your behalf, ‘We have a king in Judah!’ Now the king is going to hear about these rumors. So come on! Let’s talk about this.” ⁷ 

Nehemia 6:10

6:10 Then I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel. He was confined to his home. ⁸  He said, “Let’s set up a time to meet in the house of God, within the temple. Let’s close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. It will surely be at night that they will come to kill you.”

Nehemia 5:2

5:2 There were those who said, “With our sons and daughters, we are many. We must obtain ⁹  grain in order to eat and stay alive.”

Nehemia 9:36

9:36 “So today we are slaves! In the very land you gave to our ancestors to eat its fruit and to enjoy ¹⁰  its good things – we are slaves!

Nehemia 13:16

13:16 The people from Tyre ¹¹  who lived there were bringing fish and all kinds of merchandise and were selling it on the Sabbath to the people of Judah – and in Jerusalem, of all places! ¹² 

Nehemia 5:5

5:5 And now, though we share the same flesh and blood as our fellow countrymen, ¹³  and our children are just like their children, ¹⁴  still we have found it necessary to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. ¹⁵  Some of our daughters have been subjected to slavery, while we are powerless to help, ¹⁶  since our fields and vineyards now belong to other people.” ¹⁷ 

Nehemia 2:20

2:20 I responded to them by saying, “The God of heaven will prosper us. We his servants will start the rebuilding. ¹⁸  But you have no just or ancient right in Jerusalem.” ¹⁹ 

Nehemia 9:24

9:24 Their descendants ²⁰  entered and possessed the land. You subdued before them the Canaanites who were the inhabitants of the land. You delivered them into their hand, together with their kings and the peoples of the land, to deal with as they pleased.

Nehemia 1:6

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 ²¹  against you – both I myself and my family ²²  have sinned.

[9:18]  ¹ tn Heb “great.”

[5:15]  ² tc The Hebrew term אַחַר (’akhar) is difficult here. It normally means “after,” but that makes no sense here. Some scholars emend it to אַחַד (’akhad) and supply the word “day,” which yields the sense “daily.” Cf. TEV “40 silver coins a day for food and wine.”

[9:6]  ³ tn Heb “the heavens of the heavens.”

[9:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “all their host.”

[6:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “call.”

[6:7]  ⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[6:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “Let us consult together.”

[6:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “shut in.” The reason for his confinement is not stated. BDB 783 s.v. עָצַר suggests that it had to do with the fulfillment of a vow or was related to an issue of ceremonial uncleanness.

[5:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “take” (so also in v. 3).

[9:36]  ¹⁰ tn The expression “to enjoy” is not included in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[13:16]  ¹¹ map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[13:16]  ¹² tn The words “of all places” are not in the Hebrew text but have been supplied in the translation to indicate the emphasis on Jerusalem.

[5:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “according to the flesh of our brothers is our flesh.”

[5:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “like their children, our children.”

[5:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “to become slaves” (also later in this verse).

[5:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “there is not power for our hand.” The Hebrew expression used here is rather difficult.

[5:5]  ¹⁷ 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).

[2:20]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “will arise and build.” The idiom “arise and…” means to begin the action described by the second verb.

[2:20]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “portion or right or remembrance.” The expression is probably a hendiatris: The first two nouns retain their full nominal function, while the third noun functions adjectivally (“right or remembrance” = “ancient right”).

[9:24]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the sons.”

[1:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “have sinned.” For stylistic reasons – to avoid redundancy in English – this was translated as “committed.”

[1:6]  ²² tn Heb “the house of my father.”