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 2:8

2:8 and a letter for Asaph the keeper of the king’s nature preserve, ³  so that he will give me timber for beams for the gates of the fortress adjacent to the temple and for the city wall ⁴  and for the house to which I go.” So the king granted me these requests, ⁵  for the good hand of my God was on me.

Nehemiah 2:18

2:18 Then I related to them how the good hand of my God was on me and what ⁶  the king had said to me. Then they replied, “Let’s begin rebuilding right away!” ⁷  So they readied themselves ⁸  for this good project.

Nehemiah 5:13-15

5:13 I also shook out my garment, ⁹  and I said, “In this way may God shake out from his house and his property every person who does not carry out ¹⁰  this matter. In this way may he be shaken out and emptied!” All the assembly replied, “So be it!” and they praised the LORD. Then the people did as they had promised. ¹¹ 

5:14 From the day that I was appointed ¹²  governor ¹³  in the land of Judah, that is, from the twentieth year until the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes – twelve years in all – neither I nor my relatives ¹⁴  ate the food allotted to the governor. ¹⁵  5:15 But the former governors who preceded me had burdened the people and had taken food and wine from them, in addition to ¹⁶  forty shekels of silver. Their associates were also domineering over the people. But I did not behave in this way, due to my fear of God.

Nehemiah 13:19

13:19 When the evening shadows ¹⁷  began to fall on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered ¹⁸  the doors to be closed. I further directed that they were not to be opened until after the Sabbath. I positioned ¹⁹  some of my young men at the gates so that no load could enter on the Sabbath day.

Nehemiah 13:22

13:22 Then I directed the Levites to purify themselves and come and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy.

For this please remember me, O my God, and have pity on me in keeping with your great love.

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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 Or “forest.” So HALOT 963 s.v. פַּרְדֵּס 2.

⁴ tc One medieval Hebrew MS, the Syriac Peshitta, Vulgate, and the Arabic read here the plural וּלְחוֹמוֹת (ulÿkhomot, “walls”) against the singular וּלְחוֹמַת (ulÿkhomat) in the MT. The plural holem vav (וֹ) might have dropped out due to dittography or the plural form might have been written defectively.

⁵ tn The Hebrew text does not include the expression “these requests,” but it is implied.

⁶ tn Heb “the words of the king which he had spoken to me.”

⁷ tn Heb “Arise! Let us rebuild!”

⁸ tn Heb “strengthened their hands.”

⁹ tn Heb “my bosom.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “cause to stand.”

¹¹ tn Heb “according to this word.”

¹² tc The BHS editors suggest reading צֻוֵּאתִי (tsuvve’ti, “and I was appointed”) rather than the reading of the MT, אֹתִי צִוָּה (tsivvah ’oti, “he appointed me”).

¹³ tc The translation reads with one medieval Hebrew MS פֶּחָה (pekhah, “governor”) rather than פֶּחָם (pekham, “their governor”) of the MT. One would expect the form with pronominal suffix to have a tav (ת) before the suffix.

¹⁴ tn Heb “brothers.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “the food of the governor.” Cf. v. 18.

¹⁶ tc The Hebrew term אַחַר (’akhar) is difficult here. It normally means “after,” but that makes no sense here. Some scholars emend it to אַחַד (’akhad) and supply the word “day,” which yields the sense “daily.” Cf. TEV “40 silver coins a day for food and wine.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “the gates of Jerusalem grew dark.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “said” (so also in v. 22).

¹⁹ tn Heb “caused to stand.”