Nehemiah 4:2

4:2 and in the presence of his colleagues ¹  and the army of Samaria ²  he said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they be left to themselves? ³  Will they again offer sacrifice? Will they finish this in a day? Can they bring these burnt stones to life again from piles of dust?”

Nehemiah 10:29

10:29 hereby participate with their colleagues the town leaders ⁴  and enter into a curse and an oath ⁵  to adhere to ⁶  the law of God which was given through Moses the servant of God, and to obey ⁷  carefully all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, ⁸  along with his ordinances and his statutes.

Nehemiah 13:13

13:13 I gave instructions ⁹  that Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and a certain Levite named Pedaiah be put in charge of ¹⁰  the storerooms, and that Hanan son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah, be their assistant, ¹¹  for they were regarded as trustworthy. It was then their responsibility to oversee the distribution to their colleagues. ¹² 

---

¹ tn Heb “brothers.”

² map For location see Map2-B1; Map4-D3; Map5-E2; Map6-A4; Map7-C1.

³ tc The Hebrew text is difficult here. The present translation follows the MT, but the text may be corrupt. H. G. M. Williamson (Ezra, Nehemiah [WBC], 213-14) translates these words as “Will they commit their cause to God?” suggesting that MT לָהֶם (lahem, “to them”) should be emended to לֵאלֹהִים (lelohim, “to God”), a proposal also found in the apparatus of BHS. In his view later scribes altered the phrase out of theological motivations. J. Blenkinsopp’s translation is similar: “Are they going to leave it all to God?” (Ezra–Nehemiah [OTL], 242-44). However, a problem for this view is the absence of external evidence to support the proposed emendation. The sense of the MT reading may be the notion that the workers – if left to their own limited resources – could not possibly see such a demanding and expensive project through to completion. This interpretation understands the collocation עָזַב (’azav, “to leave”) plus לְ (lÿ, “to”) to mean “commit a matter to someone,” with the sense in this verse “Will they leave the building of the fortified walls to themselves?”

⁴ tn Heb “the nobles.”

⁵ tn The expression “a curse and an oath” may be a hendiadys, meaning “an oath with penalties.”

⁶ tn Heb “to walk in.”

⁷ tn Heb “keep.” See the note on the word “obey” in Neh 1:5.

⁸ tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

⁹ tc Probably one should read with the Lucianic Greek recension, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Vulgate וָאֲצַוֶּה (va’atsavveh, “and I commanded”) rather than the rare denominative verb וָאוֹצְרָה (va’otsÿrah, “and I appointed over the storeroom”) of the MT.

¹⁰ tn Heb “be over”

¹¹ tn Heb “on their hand.”

¹² tn Heb “brothers.”