I remonstrated with the nobles of Judah: Nehemiah remonstrated again (see verse 11 above). He took his protest to the leaders of the people, holding them responsible for what was being allowed to take place on the Sabbath. Nehemiah was calling for the end of the Sabbath as a market day. Buying had not been considered a violation of the Sabbath because only the seller was considered to be working. But Nehemiah held the Jewish buyers responsible for the situation, not the foreign sellers. This was the background of the pledge made in Neh 10.31 not to buy from those who sold on the Sabbath.

For nobles see the comments at Neh 2.16.

What is this evil thing which you are doing…?: Nehemiah’s reprimand is in the form of a rhetorical question to which no direct reply is expected. He asks what evil thing they are doing (see verse 7 above). He addresses them directly using the independent second person plural pronoun you for emphasis. Then he dramatically replies to his own question with the words profaning the sabbath day.

Profaning the sabbath day: To profane something is to make it unclean. Good News Translation creates a play on the description of the Sabbath as holy (Neh 9.14) by saying that they are “making the Sabbath unholy.” They were violating the holiness of the Sabbath day. In some languages this may be expressed as “spoiling the day of rest.”

Many translators will need to restructure Nehemiah’s accusation. Good News Translation changes the form of the accusation from a rhetorical question into exclamations (similarly New Jerusalem Bible). It uses the informal style of contraction with “you’re” in place of the formal “you are” for a stronger dramatic effect. Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation retain the direct quotation of the Hebrew text for its impact and Good News Translation uses the exclamation mark to indicate emphasis. Many translators will find Good News Translation a useful model.

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 .