The people went out … brought … made: These three verbs report the sequence of actions that the people carried out in response to the instructions that they found in the Law of Moses. The text does not make explicit where the people went out from or where they went out to. It can be safely assumed that they went to the hillsides (verse 15) where they would find trees growing. In some languages it will be necessary to make this explicit; for example, “the people went out of town to the hills where there were trees.”

Brought them combines the double action of getting branches (so Good News Translation) and of coming back with the branches. New International Version translates “brought back branches.”

Made booths for themselves will be expressed in many languages by a technical verb that relates to building or putting up a structure. In this case the structure is a temporary or nonpermanent construction (see the comments at Ezra 3.4). The reflexive expression for themselves emphasizes that each person or each family was to act on their own behalf.

Each on his roof refers to the fact that houses at that time had flat roofs. The flat roof space was large enough for the people to place booths on them. Other people built booths in courts and in squares. Their courts refers to the “yards” (Good News Translation) of homes that were enclosed by walls. There were also courts (New Living Translation “courtyards”) in the house of God, that is, in the Temple (also Neh 13.7). A square was usually a larger area than a court. It was a public place, such as a plaza or an open city area. Commentators assume that the booths in the public places of the city were made by the people from outside Jerusalem who came to the city for the festival.

For square at the Water Gate, see verse 1 above. For Water Gate, see the comment at Neh 3.26. The Gate of Ephraim was four hundred cubits (about 200 meters or 200 yards) from the Corner Gate in the northern wall of the city (see 2 Kgs 14.13).

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 .