I was very angry indicates distress, disgust, and anger. New Jerusalem Bible says more formally “I was extremely displeased.” An appropriate expression should be used here (see Good News Translation). Some languages may say “this spoiled my liver very much” or “my insides were blackened very much by what Eliashib had done” (see also Neh 2.10).

I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber: Nehemiah’s response was to remove everything belonging to Tobiah from the storeroom. Nehemiah acted on his authority as governor when he threw out Tobiah’s things. The word for threw in Hebrew is in the causative form indicating that Nehemiah caused this to happen. In some languages it will be preferable to indicate that Nehemiah caused Tobiah’s belongings to be thrown out of the Temple room, making it clear that he did not himself personally do the throwing out.

Household furniture refers to the equipment and belongings of Tobiah. The Hebrew term here is very general referring to objects that have been made, such as utensils, tools, clothing, or weapons. The last clause may be stated as “I caused to be thrown out everything that belonged to him that was in the room.”

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 .