Nehemiah continues to list landmarks along the route taken by this half of the procession. It went above the Gate of Ephraim (see Neh 8.16), by the Old Gate (see the comments at Neh 3.6), by the Fish Gate (see Neh 3.3) and the Tower of Hananel and the Tower of the Hundred (see Neh 3.1), to the Sheep Gate (see comment at Neh 3.1). The route of this company ended at the Gate of the Guard. This may refer to the Muster Gate, the Temple gate giving access to the court of the Temple guard (see Neh 3.31).

The Hebrew prepositions in this verse are a problem for translators. The Hebrew preposition ʿal, which is rendered by, occurs with the Old Gate and the Fish Gate. It usually means “on, over, upon” and some translations therefore say “over” in this context (so Revised English Bible). The two towers have no prepositions with them. A variety of prepositions or no prepositions is possible in translating this verse. Revised Standard Version closely follows the Hebrew text, while Good News Translation simply indicates the movement and direction of the procession.

They came to a halt is a formal English expression for the ending of a procession. New English Bible says “they halted.” Good News Translation expresses it in a similar way with “We ended our march.” New International Version says “they stopped” without an allusion to a procession. Although the narrative has been told in the first person, the narrator here uses a third person plural form of the Hebrew verb. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible and Nouvelle version Segond révisée accommodate this shift from first person to third person by using the French indefinite on (“one” in English) as the subject of the verb. A number of translations do as Good News Translation has done. They shift to a first person plural exclusive pronoun, “we stopped” (Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation), to maintain a consistency of reference. Translators will need to use the pronoun and appropriate verb form to make the narrative clear.

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 .