And I appointed as treasurers over the storehouses: The Hebrew verb rendered appointed is a causative verb. Here it means to make someone a treasurer to be in charge of a treasury or a storehouse (see Neh 10.38-39). Nehemiah made the appointments of the men in charge of the storerooms on his own authority.

Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah of the Levites …: The names of those who were “appointed” in Neh 12.44 are given here. In Ezra 8.33 the treasures of the Temple were delivered to two priests and two Levites. Here they are a priest, a scribe, and a Levite. Both Shelemiah and Zadok were priestly names (see Neh 3.29-30). Zadok may be another name for Zedekiah, Nehemiah’s personal secretary (Neh 10.1). He is called a scribe and was evidently a professional administrator. Revised English Bible calls him an “accountant” (see Ezra 4.8). Previously in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, only Shimshai, a Persian official (Ezra 4.8), and Ezra (Ezra 7.6) had been called scribes. In addition to these men, Hanan was appointed as their assistant, which is literally “at their hand.” His duty was to be beside them to give help to them. He was the grandson of the choir leader Mattaniah, a singer (see Neh 11.17).

They were counted faithful: These four men were thought to be trustworthy; that is, they were considered to be men who could be trusted. This same description was applied to Abraham in Neh 9.8. The basic meaning of the Hebrew word translated faithful is “to lean upon”; that is, these men could be leaned on, or relied on (so New Jerusalem Bible). This was important because they were responsible to distribute the tithes to their associates the priests and Levites. It is implied that they were required to be honest in their duties and that the distribution was to be fair. Translators should follow the Hebrew text with its emphasis upon the reputation of these men rather than the emphasis of Good News Translation on Nehemiah’s own confidence in them.

And their duty was to distribute to their brethren; that is to say, it was their task or their responsibility (so New International Version) to distribute the provisions to their brethren. These were “their kinsmen” (New Jerusalem Bible) or “their companions” (Bible en français courant).

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 .