Following Nehemiah’s gestures of sorrow, he addresses a prayer to God. This is recorded in this verse and the following six verses. The form of Nehemiah’s prayer is typical of biblical prayers (compare Dan 9.4-19). It includes the following parts: invocation of God (1.5), confession of sins (1.6-7), request to God to remember his people (1.8-10), and request for success (1.11).
Nehemiah’s prayer is recorded in the form of a direct quotation; that is, the text records the words that Nehemiah used when he prayed.
O LORD God of heaven: Good News Translation marks this address as an emphatic call by punctuating it with an exclamation mark at the end (see the comments on “O my God” at Ezra 9.6). Traduction œcuménique de la Bible and Nouvelle version Segond révisée use the interjection “Ah!” to mark Nehemiah’s feeling of troubled surprise as he calls to the LORD. Luther and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch do similarly with the interjection “Ach” in German. Other translations express this sense of surprise and apparent dismay through an exclamation as he begins his prayer; for example, “Ho!” (KKS) or “Kayto” (Deftere Allah).
In the Hebrew text God is addressed by the distinctive name used by the people of Israel, that is, YHWH. Nehemiah first calls upon God by his personal name that was given to Moses. This is rendered LORD in Revised Standard Version (see “Translating Ezra and Nehemiah,” pages 18-19). Next he uses the Hebrew term ʾelohim (God) in an expression that was used by Israel’s neighbors and by the Persians for the God of Israel, that is, the descriptive title God of heaven (see Ezra 1.2).
The invocation mentions five characteristics of God that were taken from the experiences of the people of Israel with God throughout their history (see also Dan 9.4):
1) God is great in power;
2) God’s works are terrible, creating fear and reverence;
3) God keeps the covenant made with the people of Israel;
4) God’s relationship with Israel is characterized by steadfast love;
5) God’s love is experienced by those who love him and keep his commandments.
The great and terrible God: Here a third name for God is used. It is the short form ʾel (see “Translating Ezra and Nehemiah,” page 19), which is used with two adjectives as in Deut 7.21. God is great in power and he is terrible; that is, God is powerful and awe-inspiring (see New Revised Standard Version). He is a God who creates fear through his mighty deeds. Most translations do not distinguish between ʾelohim and ʾel. Chouraqui retains both Hebrew forms and transliterates them. In some languages there are special descriptive modifiers that can be used here to refer to “God, the Great One, the Terrible One” (Deftere Allah). In other languages there are descriptive names that are used as epithets with reference to God. Such names or titles may be used here as appropriate.
Keeps covenant and steadfast love: Two well-known Hebrew words occur here together. The first is berith (covenant) and the second is chesed (steadfast love; for a discussion on these words, see Ezra 10.3 and 3.11 respectively). Here one Hebrew verb is used for keeping both covenant and steadfast love, as is reflected in the Revised Standard Version translation. Good News Translation, like New English Bible, restructures the sentence to interpret steadfast love with adverbial meaning: “faithfully.” New American Bible renders the two terms as “covenant of mercy.”
Those who love him and keep his commandments: One of the conditions required by the covenant relationship between God and his people was that they should love him. A second was that they should keep his commandments (see Deut 5.10). The commandments refer to God’s Law that the Israelites were supposed to obey.
This part of the opening prayer has a chiastic structure; that is, there is a reversal of order in the second part of the sentence from the first part. If it were written as a poem, it would take the “X” form of a chiasmus.
God keeps covenant and [keeps] steadfast love with those who love him and who keep his commandments.
Bible en français courant restructures here and brings the separate parts of the chiasmus together: “You keep your covenant with those who obey your commandments, you remain faithful toward those who love you.”
The prayer is addressed to God, but after calling upon God by name, the speaker shifts his perspective as though describing God for the benefit of those who are listening to him pray. The translator may use a form similar to the Hebrew text if this is a natural way of addressing God in the receptor language. However, in many languages it is more natural to keep the address in the second person singular (so Good News Translation, Bible en français courant), or in the plural of respect if that is the normal form for addressing a superior. Through the remainder of the prayer Nehemiah speaks directly to God. The long sentence of this verse that begins the prayer may be restructured into two or three shorter sentences to make it easier to read and understand, as Good News Translation and other common language translations have done.
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 .