The climax of this section of the prayer is that the descendants went in and possessed the land as God had promised. The form of the Hebrew word for descendants makes it clear that they are the same group of people as in the previous verse.
Thou didst subdue before them shows clearly that God was the conqueror on behalf of the Israelites. Nouvelle Bible Segond translates the Hebrew literally as “you humiliated before them,” but the meaning here is “to overcome” (so Good News Translation) or “to conquer.” Contemporary Chinese Bible says “you crushed….” There is no reference here to Joshua who was their leader in the conquest. In Hebrew before them is literally “to their face” and some other languages use a similar expression.
The inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites: See Ezra 9.1. Here Canaanites is in apposition to the inhabitants of the land; that is, the term refers broadly to the people who were living in the land, as Good News Translation renders it. Many languages have a special term for “the children of the land” or “those of the land.” In the Hebrew there is a play on the words subdue (kanaʿ) and Canaanites (kenaʿanim) because of how similar the two words sound to each other.
Didst give them into their hands is a Hebrew idiom that means to give someone power over someone else (see Ezra 5.12). Good News Translation restructures the verse to express its meaning and omits the figure of speech. New International Version uses a similar figure: “you handed the Canaanites over to them.”
As they would: In Hebrew this is literally “according to their will [or, pleasure].” This expression usually has a bad sense (see Gen 16.6; 19.8; Est 9.5). The Israelites were able to treat the rulers and people of Canaan in whatever way they wanted (so Good News Translation). This might be said idiomatically: “as their hearts wished.”
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 .