4:11 Our adversaries also boasted, 1 “Before they are aware or anticipate 2 anything, we will come in among them and kill them, and we will bring this work to a halt!”
4:15 It so happened that when our adversaries heard that we were aware of these matters, 3 God frustrated their intentions. Then all of us returned to the wall, each to his own work. 4:16 From that day forward, half of my men were doing the work and half of them were taking up spears, 4 shields, bows, and body armor. Now the officers were behind all the people 5 of Judah
4:19 I said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, “The work is demanding 6 and extensive, and we are spread out on the wall, far removed from one another.
6:9 All of them were wanting 7 to scare us, supposing, “Their hands will grow slack from the work, and it won’t get done.”
So now, strengthen my hands! 8
13:10 I also discovered that the grain offerings for the Levites had not been provided, and that as a result the Levites and the singers who performed this work had all gone off to their fields.
1 tn Heb “said.”
2 tn Heb “see.”
3 tn Heb “it was known to us.”
4 tc The MT reads “and spears.” The conjunction should be deleted.
5 tn Heb “all the house.”
6 tn Heb “much.”
7 tn The participle has a desiderative nuance here, describing the desire of the subject and not necessarily the actual outcome. See also v. 14.
8 tn The statement “So now, strengthen my hands” is frequently understood as an implied prayer, but is taken differently by NAB (“But instead, I now redoubled my efforts”).
9 tc The MT understands the root here to be יָרֵא (yare’, “to fear”) rather than רָאָה (ra’ah, “to see”).
10 tn Heb “they greatly fell [i.e., were cast down] in their own eyes.” Some scholars suggest emending the reading of the MT, וַיִּפְּלוּ (vayyipÿlu) to וַיִּפָּלֵא (vayyippale’, “it was very extraordinary in their eyes”).
11 tn Heb “brothers” (also in vv. 13, 14, 17, 19).