In preparation for the ceremony of dedication, the priests and the Levites first purified themselves. This would probably have involved fasting, abstaining from sexual intercourse, and making a sin offering (see Num 8.5-8). Then they purified the people. This required the washing of their clothes, bathing, and ritual sprinkling (see Exo 19.10, 14-15; Num 8.21). Even the gates and the wall were purified. Sprinkling with hyssop may have been done as in the ritual cleansing of private houses (see Lev 14.49-53). There is no other reference to the purification of gates and walls in the Old Testament, but purification may have been done in this instance because of the status of Jerusalem as “the holy city” (Neh 11.1, 18).

For purified see Ezra 6.20.

The chronological sequence of events should be made clear in the translation. The priests and Levites first performed the ritual on themselves and only then did they perform the ritual on the people and on the city wall and its gates.

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 .