I remonstrated with the officials: Nehemiah continues his narrative in the first person singular. He made a formal complaint, he says, against the officials. These were the lay leaders of the city who were responsible for the maintenance of worship (see Neh 2.16). The Hebrew verb that is translated remonstrated is a legal term for bringing a charge against someone (see Neh 5.7). However, here Nehemiah’s charges are made orally and publicly in the form of a verbal reprimand. The same verb and the same action is repeated in verses 17 and 25 (where Revised Standard Version has “contended”). “To reprimand” (Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible), “to rebuke” (New International Version) and “to reproach” express the similar meaning of speaking with stern disapproval against someone (so Contemporary English Version). New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh refers to it as censuring.

Why is the house of God forsaken?: Asking a Why question is a conventional formula for making an accusation against the person or people to whom the question is addressed. Here it is a rhetorical question that is recorded in the form of direct quotation. Good News Translation restructures the question in the form of a non-quotation that explicitly places the blame for the condition of the Temple upon the officials. In the rhetorical question, the blame is implicit. If rhetorical questions are used in the receptor culture with a similar function, then translators should use a rhetorical question here; for example, “What has caused everyone to scatter, abandoning the work in the House of God?”

The Temple had been forsaken because without the Levites there could not be any worship activities.

I gathered them together: Nehemiah gathered them together, thereby reversing the previous situation when they had all dispersed to their farms. Them refers to the Levites and singers, as is made explicit in Good News Translation.

Set them in their stations: Their stations is literally “their standing places.” These are their posts of service or their “workplaces” in the Temple. Good News Translation restructures this clause and appropriately translates “put them to work again.” Bible en français courant says “I made them take up the work again.”

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 .