Even when they had made for themselves a molten calf: Even is an adverb that intensifies the clause that it introduces. Although the temporal marker when follows it, the main focus is not on the time when the action took place, but on the fact that the Israelites did what they did. Good News Translation therefore restructures the first two lines to emphasize how great their sin was. Translators should use an equivalent expression in their own languages, for example, “even with their casting of a calf” or “although they did something so bad as making a calf from metal.”
The greatest rebellion of the Israelites was to make for themselves a molten calf and worship it as God. The molten calf was metal that was melted and cast in the shape of a calf (see Exo 32.1-8). Good News Translation specifies that it had the form of a male calf and identifies it as an idol. The Egyptian god Apis and the Canaanite god Baal were both represented as bulls. This may be translated “they molded something that looked like a calf for themselves to worship.”
And said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt’: The speakers are the Israelites in general, just as in Exo 32.4. The Hebrew text does not specifically identify the person to whom these words were being said. However, the singular pronouns your and you refer collectively to the people of Israel. Therefore, the people are speaking to themselves. This is a quotation within a quotation and it may be difficult to translate clearly in some languages. Good News Translation has changed the direct speech to indirect speech to make the meaning clear. Bible en français courant retains the direct speech but changes the pronouns to the first person plural: “Here is our god who led us out of Egypt!” The exclamation point marks this as an emphatic announcement. In other languages the emphasis may be indicated by a special emphatic word at the end of the sentence, or by other emphatic markers.
Revised Standard Version writes God with an initial capital letter (also New Jerusalem Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible) because the Israelites took the calf to be their God. However, Good News Translation and other translations write it with an initial lower case letter as “god,” because it refers to an idol (also Contemporary English Version, New International Version, Bible en français courant). Both the Septuagint and Vulgate have “gods” as their way of signifying an idol. Some languages may have a word that is used generally for gods other than the one God and that term would be appropriate here.
Great blasphemies: The Hebrew word for blasphemies has the basic meaning of “scorn” and is used only in 2 Kgs 19.3 (Revised Standard Version “disgrace”); Neh 9.18, 26; Isa 37.3 (Revised Standard Version “disgrace”); and Ezek 35.12 (Revised Standard Version “revilings”). The Septuagint translated it as “provocations [to anger].” For the whole phrase, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible renders it “great offenses,” and Segond has “great outrages.” Good News Translation restructures the last line as an exclamation addressed to God.
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 .