2:3 I replied to the king, “O king, live forever! Why would I not appear dejected when the city with the graves of my ancestors 4 lies desolate and its gates destroyed 5 by fire?”
6:9 All of them were wanting 9 to scare us, supposing, “Their hands will grow slack from the work, and it won’t get done.”
So now, strengthen my hands! 10
13:28 Now one of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. So I banished him from my sight.
1 tn Heb “brothers.”
2 tn The Hebrew text does not include the words “to me”; these words were supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.
3 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
4 tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 5).
5 tn Heb “devoured” or “eaten” (so also in Neh 2:13).
6 tn Heb “If upon the king it is good.” So also in v. 7.
7 tc The MT reads “and spears.” The conjunction should be deleted.
8 tn Heb “all the house.”
9 tn The participle has a desiderative nuance here, describing the desire of the subject and not necessarily the actual outcome. See also v. 14.
10 tn The statement “So now, strengthen my hands” is frequently understood as an implied prayer, but is taken differently by NAB (“But instead, I now redoubled my efforts”).
11 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
12 tn Some have suggested that “Hananiah” is another name for Hanani, Nehemiah’s brother, so that only one individual is mentioned here. However, the third person plural in v. 3 indicates two people are in view.