1:4 When I heard these things I sat down abruptly, 1 crying and mourning for several days. I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
4:4 Hear, O our God, for we are despised! Return their reproach on their own head! Reduce them to plunder in a land of exile!
4:15 It so happened that when our adversaries heard that we were aware of these matters, 2 God frustrated their intentions. Then all of us returned to the wall, each to his own work.
5:9 Then I 3 said, “The thing that you are doing is wrong! 4 Should you not conduct yourselves 5 in the fear of our God in order to avoid the reproach of the Gentiles who are our enemies?
6:14 Remember, O my God, Tobiah and Sanballat in light of these actions of theirs – also Noadiah the prophetess and the other prophets who were trying to scare me!
13:1 On that day the book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing 15 of the people. They found 16 written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite may ever enter the assembly of God, 13:2 for they had not met the Israelites with food 17 and water, but instead had hired Balaam to curse them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into blessing.)
13:4 But prior to this time, Eliashib the priest, a relative of Tobiah, had been appointed over the storerooms 18 of the temple of our God.
Please remember me for good, O my God.
1 tn Heb “sat down.” Context suggests that this was a rather sudden action, resulting from the emotional shock of the unpleasant news, so “abruptly” has been supplied in the present translation.
2 tn Heb “it was known to us.”
3 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”).
4 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.
5 tn Heb “[should you not] walk.”
6 tn Heb “and Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.”
7 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
8 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.
9 tn Heb “great.”
10 tn Heb “cause to stand on us.”
11 tc The MT reads “to give upon us.” However, the term עָלֵינוּ (’alenu, “upon us”) should probably be deleted, following a few medieval Hebrew
12 tn Heb “house” (also in vv. 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39).
13 tn Heb “And the priest the son of Aaron.”
14 tc With many medieval Hebrew
15 tn Heb “ears.”
16 tn Heb “it was found.” The Hebrew verb is passive.
17 tn Heb “bread.” The Hebrew term is generic here, however, referring to more than bread alone.
18 tc The translation reads the plural rather than the singular of the MT.
19 tn Heb “and I stood them on their standing.”
20 tn Heb “give a dwelling to.”
21 tn The words “I also provided for” are not included in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.