From this point the line of the wall being repaired is identified by reference to private houses. Since this is the side where a new wall is being built, there are no gates or previous parts of the wall to refer to. The section of wall referred to in this verse was built either from a turning in the wall or from the buttress (or, escarpment) to the house of Eliashib the high priest. For Eliashib the high priest, see the comments at verse 1 above.

The Hebrew text has a word that occurs just before the word repaired. It is sometimes translated “zealously” (New International Version; similarly Bible en français courant, Segond, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible) or “eagerly” (Contemporary English Version) and is given a C rating by Hebrew Old Testament Text Project. This word could literally mean “heated” or “uphill” as in the Vulgate. However, it appears to be out of place in this context and can be explained as a scribal mistake duplicating the appearance of either the word before it or the word after it. Or it may have been a word in the margin explaining the meaning of the word “ascent” in the previous verse, and it later got into the text. Accordingly, it is omitted in Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and some other modern translations (New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible) and translators should do likewise.

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 .