The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens upon the people: The former governors could refer to 1) Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel who are mentioned in Ezra; 2) officials in Samaria; or 3) immediate predecessors of Nehemiah as governor. It is not known whether Nehemiah was the first governor of Judea itself or there were others who had this position before him. Translators should not indicate who these governors were. Whoever they were, they laid heavy burdens on the people (that is, the ordinary citizens) in the form of taxes including both silver and produce.
Heavy burdens is a picture of weight representing something that is difficult to do or to bear. This may be difficult duties or responsibilities or it may be difficult demands made by a person on someone else. Here the Hebrew says the earlier governors “weighed upon the people.” They did this by imposing heavy taxes. Many cultures use the picture of bearing heavy loads or carrying a great weight with a similar meaning to the Hebrew usage. This may also be expressed in terms of causing suffering by making difficult demands of the people.
Took from them food and wine, besides forty shekels of silver: Besides, which is literally “after,” is a strange construction in Hebrew. It is given a C rating in Hebrew Old Testament Text Project. It could mean the silver (see Ezra 1.4) was collected after taking their food and wine. The Vulgate, which is followed by Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New English Bible and Luther, has “for every day” (compare verse 18) and may represent what was originally in the Hebrew. This understanding is recommended to translators. According to the comments on Ezra 7.22, a shekel weighed 11.3 grams. At that rate forty shekels of silver would be a half a kilogram or one pound of silver per day. This may be rendered as “forty silver coins” (Good News Translation) or as “forty pieces of silver” (Bible en français courant). Alternatively, translators may borrow the word “shekel” or use a transliteration and then include an explanation in a footnote or in the glossary.
Even their servants lorded it over the people: The Hebrew verb for lorded it over means “to rule over,” “to dominate,” or “to oppress” (so Good News Translation). New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh and Revised English Bible say “tyrannized over” and Nouvelle version Segond révisée says “reigned over as masters.” The servants were probably minor officials responsible to collect the taxes. New International Version calls them “assistants.”
But I did not do so: In Hebrew But I represents the connective conjunction in a contrasting sense (compare Ezra 3.12) and the independent first person singular pronoun. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible expresses this as “But I myself.” In some languages a contrastive construction may be used; for example, “But as for me, I did not act like that” or “But for my part….”
Because of the fear of God: Nehemiah affirms that his motivation for not acting like the previous governors was his respect (Contemporary English Version) or his reverence (New International Version) for God. This does not mean that he was afraid of God, but that he worshiped God and obeyed his commandments (see verse 9 above).
Quoted with permission from Noss, Philip A. and Thomas, Kenneth J. A Handbook on Nehemiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2005. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .