Nehemiah 12:36
12:36 and his colleagues – Shemaiah, Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Judah, and Hanani – with musical instruments of 1 David the man of God. (Ezra the scribe led them.) 2
Nehemiah 12:45-46
12:45 They performed the service of their God and the service of purification, along with the singers and gatekeepers, according to the commandment of David and 3 his son Solomon.
12:46 For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there had been directors 4 for the singers and for the songs of praise and thanks to God.
1 tn Or “prescribed by” (NIV, NLT); TEV “of the kind played by.” The precise relationship of these musical instruments to David is not clear.
2 tn Heb “was before them.”
3 tc With many medieval Hebrew MSS and the ancient versions the translation reads the conjunction (“and”). It is absent in the Leningrad MS that forms the textual basis for BHS.
4 tn Heb “heads.” The translation reads with the Qere the plural רֹאשֵׁי (ro’shey, “heads”) rather than the Kethib singular רֹאשׁ (ro’sh, “head”) of the MT.