Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from thy sight: These two clauses are parallel. Nehemiah uses two Hebrew expressions that mean to forgive and forget. Guilt is a key term in biblical theology (see Ezra 9.6). It refers to the fact that a person has done something wrong and therefore bears personal responsibility for the effects of that wrongdoing. To cover over someone’s guilt means that the person will not be subject to punishment. In other words, the evil or the sin done by the guilty person will be forgiven. To blot out someone’s sin means that the person’s sin will be forgotten and therefore it will not be punished. This part of the prayer echoes Jer 18.23 that the sins of their enemies should not be forgiven.

These expressions may be difficult to translate in some cultures. The first may be rendered as “Do not remove the words that are on their heads” or “Do not take away the guilt from on their heads.” The second may be stated “Do not brush out their sins from in front of you.” Good News Translation expresses the sense of forgiving and forgetting without retaining the figures of speech.

They have provoked thee to anger before the builders: This means they caused God to become angry. The enemies are presented as having angered God in the presence of the people who were working on the wall. The Hebrew verb rendered provoked … to anger may also have the meaning of “insult,” as in Hos 12.14 (where Revised Standard Version has “provocation”). Other versions interpret this to refer to the builders and the insults that were heaped upon them as Good News Translation has done (also Contemporary English Version, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). New American Standard Bible renders it “they have demoralized the builders.” The emphasis here is on the fact that the insults by Sanballat and Tobiah were being made in front of the builders. This is brought out in the New Revised Standard Version translation “they have hurled insults in the face of the builders” (similarly New International Version). Since the object of the insults is not specified in the Hebrew text, this latter translation is recommended.

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 .