Nehemiah 1:5
1:5 Then I said, “Please, O LORD God of heaven, great and awesome God, who keeps his loving covenant 1 with those who love him and obey 2 his commandments,
Nehemiah 4:10
4:10 Then those in Judah said, “The strength of the laborers 3 has failed! The debris is so great that we are unable to rebuild the wall.”
Nehemiah 5:2-4
5:2 There were those who said, “With our sons and daughters, we are many. We must obtain 4 grain in order to eat and stay alive.”
5:3 There were others who said, “We are putting up our fields, our vineyards, and our houses as collateral in order to obtain grain during the famine.”
5:4 Then there were those who said, “We have borrowed money to pay our taxes to the king 5 on our fields and our vineyards.
1 tn Heb “the covenant and loyal love.” The phrase is a hendiadys: the first noun retains its full nominal sense, while the second noun functions adjectivally (“loyal love” = loving). Alternately, the first might function adjectivally and the second noun function as the noun: “covenant and loyal love” = covenant fidelity (see Neh 9:32).
2 tn Heb “keep.” The Hebrew verb שָׁמַר (shamar, “to observe; to keep”) is often used as an idiom that means “to obey” the commandments of God (e.g., Exod 20:6; Deut 5:16; 23:24; 29:8; Judg 2:22; 1 Kgs 2:43; 11:11; Ps 119:8, 17, 34; Jer 35:18; Ezek 17:14; Amos 2:4). See BDB 1036 s.v. 3.c.
3 tn Heb “burden-bearers.”
4 tn Heb “take” (so also in v. 3).
5 tn Heb “for the tax of the king.”