Nehemiah 1:11

1:11 Please, ¹  O Lord, listen attentively ²  to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who take pleasure in showing respect ³  to your name. Grant your servant success today and show compassion to me ⁴  in the presence of this man.”

Now ⁵  I was cupbearer for the king.

Nehemiah 2:18

2:18 Then I related to them how the good hand of my God was on me and what ⁶  the king had said to me. Then they replied, “Let’s begin rebuilding right away!” ⁷  So they readied themselves ⁸  for this good project.

Nehemiah 5:14

5:14 From the day that I was appointed ⁹  governor ¹⁰  in the land of Judah, that is, from the twentieth year until the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes – twelve years in all – neither I nor my relatives ¹¹  ate the food allotted to the governor. ¹² 

Nehemiah 6:6

6:6 Written in it were the following words:

“Among the nations it is rumored ¹³  (and Geshem ¹⁴  has substantiated ¹⁵  this) that you and the Jews have intentions of revolting, and for this reason you are building the wall. Furthermore, according to these rumors ¹⁶  you are going to become their king.

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¹ tn The interjection אָנָּא (’anna’) is an emphatic term of entreaty: “please!” (BDB 58 s.v.; HALOT 69-70 s.v.). This term is normally reserved for pleas for mercy from God in life-and-death situations (2 Kgs 20:3 = Isa 38:3; Pss 116:4; 118:25; Jonah 1:14; 4:2) and for forgiveness of heinous sins that would result or have resulted in severe judgment from God (Exod 32:31; Dan 9:4; Neh 1:5, 11).

² tn Heb “let your ear be attentive.”

³ tn Heb “fear.”

⁴ tn Heb “grant compassion.” The words “to me” are supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness and style in English.

⁵ tn The vav (ו) on וַאֲנִי (va’ani, “Now, I”) introduces a disjunctive parenthetical clause that provides background information to the reader.

⁶ tn Heb “the words of the king which he had spoken to me.”

⁷ tn Heb “Arise! Let us rebuild!”

⁸ tn Heb “strengthened their hands.”

⁹ tc The BHS editors suggest reading צֻוֵּאתִי (tsuvve’ti, “and I was appointed”) rather than the reading of the MT, אֹתִי צִוָּה (tsivvah ’oti, “he appointed me”).

¹⁰ tc The translation reads with one medieval Hebrew MS פֶּחָה (pekhah, “governor”) rather than פֶּחָם (pekham, “their governor”) of the MT. One would expect the form with pronominal suffix to have a tav (ת) before the suffix.

¹¹ tn Heb “brothers.”

¹² tn Heb “the food of the governor.” Cf. v. 18.

¹³ tn Heb “heard.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “Gashmu”; in Neh 2:19 this name appears as Geshem. Since it is important for the modern reader to recognize that this is the same individual, the form of the name used here in the translation is the same as that in v. 19.

¹⁵ tn Heb “is saying.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “words.” So also in v. 7.