Nehemiah 1:6

1:6 may your ear be attentive and your eyes be open to hear the prayer of your servant that I am praying to you today throughout both day and night on behalf of your servants the Israelites. I am confessing the sins of the Israelites that we have committed ¹  against you – both I myself and my family ²  have sinned.

Nehemiah 2:12

2:12 I got up during the night, along with a few men who were with me. But I did not tell anyone what my God was putting on my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no animals with me, except for the one ³  I was riding.

Nehemiah 5:7

5:7 I considered these things carefully ⁴  and then registered a complaint with the wealthy ⁵  and the officials. I said to them, “Each one of you is seizing the collateral ⁶  from your own countrymen!” ⁷  Because of them I called for ⁸  a great public assembly.

Nehemiah 13:19

13:19 When the evening shadows ⁹  began to fall on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered ¹⁰  the doors to be closed. I further directed that they were not to be opened until after the Sabbath. I positioned ¹¹  some of my young men at the gates so that no load could enter on the Sabbath day.

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¹ tn Heb “have sinned.” For stylistic reasons – to avoid redundancy in English – this was translated as “committed.”

² tn Heb “the house of my father.”

³ tn Heb “the animal.”

⁴ tn Heb “my heart was advised upon me.”

⁵ tn Heb “nobles.”

⁶ tn Heb “taking a creditor’s debt.” The Hebrew noun מַשָּׁא (masha’) means “interest; debt” and probably refers to the collateral (pledge) collected by a creditor (HALOT 641-42 s.v.). This particular noun form appears only in Nehemiah (5:7, 10; 10:32); however, it is related to מַשָּׁאָה (masha’ah, “contractual loan; debt; collateral”) which appears elsewhere (Deut 24:10; Prov 22:26; cf. Neh 5:11). See the note on the word “people” at the end of v. 5. The BHS editors suggest emending the MT to מָשָׂא (masa’, “burden”), following several medieval Hebrew MSS; however, the result is not entirely clear: “you are bearing a burden, a man with his brothers.”

⁷ tn Heb “his brothers.”

⁸ tn Heb “I gave.”

⁹ tn Heb “the gates of Jerusalem grew dark.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “said” (so also in v. 22).

¹¹ tn Heb “caused to stand.”