In Hebrew the sentence begins by focusing on the people again by using the connective conjunction in an adversative sense plus the independent third person plural masculine pronoun: “But they.” This is followed by a clause that locates them in time and place (in their kingdom, and in thy great goodness … set before them), after which are the main verbs serve and turn that relate to the sentence’s initial pronoun They. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible reflects the Hebrew structure by beginning with an initial pronoun marker as follows: “[As for] them, during their reign…, they did not serve you….” Good News Translation expresses the logical order of events first as not turning from their sin and secondly as not serving God. Translators should restructure according to normal logic and expression in the receptor culture. Good News Translation offers one model, while New Living Translation offers another as follows: “Even while they had their own kingdom, they did not serve you even though you showered your goodness on them. You gave them a large fertile land, but they refused to turn from their wickedness.”
They did not serve thee in their kingdom: The verb serve means “to work for someone” but here the meaning includes obedience to someone and being faithful to that person. In their kingdom refers to the time when Israel was a monarchy with its own kings. Therefore, the verb must not refer only to a single event but to a period of time. In some languages it will be necessary to restate the prepositional phrase in the form of a temporal clause, such as “during the time that they had their own kings to rule over them” (compare Good News Translation).
In thy great goodness: This refers to the “great good” that God did for them, or “great prosperity” in the words of Revised English Bible and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible (see the comment at verse 25 above). Nouvelle version Segond révisée translates “numerous good deeds,” while Good News Translation has “With your blessing.”
In the large and rich land which thou didst set before them: God had given them a land that was both spacious for them to dwell in and whose soil was fertile and produced good crops (see verse 25 above). In some languages the large and rich land may be stated descriptively as “the great harvest-land.” This great land God had set before them; that is, he had offered it to them and thereby given it to them as Good News Translation and others translate.
They did not turn from their wicked works: The meaning here is that during the period of time that has been referred to they did not leave their “evil ways” (BNT) or their “wicked deeds” (Contemporary Chinese Bible). This may be rendered “they did not turn away from doing their evil actions” or “they did not cease to do the bad things that they were doing.”
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 .