Nehemiah 1:3

1:3 They said to me, “The remnant that remains from the exile there in the province are experiencing considerable ¹  adversity and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem lies breached, and its gates have been burned down!” ² 

Nehemiah 2:2

2:2 So the king said to me, “Why do you appear to be depressed when you aren’t sick? What can this be other than sadness of heart?” This made me very fearful.

Nehemiah 2:5

2:5 and said to the king, “If the king is so inclined ³  and if your servant has found favor in your sight, dispatch me to Judah, to the city with the graves of my ancestors, so that I can rebuild it.”

Nehemiah 2:7

2:7 I said to the king, “If the king is so inclined, let him give me letters for the governors of Trans-Euphrates ⁴  that will enable me to travel safely until I reach Judah,

Nehemiah 2:17

2:17 Then I said to them, “You see the problem that we have: Jerusalem is desolate and its gates are burned. Come on! Let’s rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that this reproach will not continue.”

Nehemiah 2:19

2:19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard all this, ⁵  they derided us and expressed contempt toward us. They said, “What is this you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”

Nehemiah 4:3

4:3 Then Tobiah the Ammonite, who was close by, said, “If even a fox were to climb up on what they are building, it would break down their wall of stones!”

Nehemiah 4:19

4:19 I said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, “The work is demanding ⁶  and extensive, and we are spread out on the wall, far removed from one another.

Nehemiah 5:9

5:9 Then I ⁷  said, “The thing that you are doing is wrong! ⁸  Should you not conduct yourselves ⁹  in the fear of our God in order to avoid the reproach of the Gentiles who are our enemies?

Nehemiah 6:19

6:19 They were telling me about his good deeds and then taking back to him the things I said. ¹⁰  Tobiah, on the other hand, sent letters in order to scare ¹¹  me.

Nehemiah 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 ¹²  blasphemies.

Nehemiah 13:21

13:21 But I warned them and said, ¹³  “Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you repeat this, I will forcibly remove you!” ¹⁴  From that time on they did not show up on the Sabbath. ¹⁵ 

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¹ tn Heb “great.”

² tn Heb “have been burned with fire” (so also in Neh 2:17). The expression “burned with fire” is redundant in contemporary English; the translation uses “burned down” for stylistic reasons.

³ tn Heb “If upon the king it is good.” So also in v. 7.

⁴ tn Heb “across the river,” here and often elsewhere in the Book of Nehemiah.

⁵ tn The Hebrew text does not include the words “all this,” but they have been added in the translation for clarity.

⁶ tn Heb “much.”

⁷ tc The translation reads with the Qere and the ancient versions וָאוֹמַר (va’omar, “and I said”) rather than the MT Kethib, וַיֹּאמֶר (vayyo’mer, “and he said”).

⁸ tn Heb “not good.” The statement “The thing…is not good” is an example of tapeinosis, a figurative expression which emphasizes the intended point (“The thing…is wrong!”) by negating its opposite.

⁹ tn Heb “[should you not] walk.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “my words.”

¹¹ tn Or “to intimidate” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT).

¹² tn Heb “great.”

¹³ tn The Hebrew text includes the words “to them,” but they have been excluded from the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹⁴ tn Heb “I will send a hand on you.”

¹⁵ sn This statement contains a great deal of restrained humor. The author clearly takes pleasure in the effectiveness of the measures that he had enacted.