Malchijah is a common name that occurs six other times in Nehemiah (3.14, 31; 8.4; 10.3; 11.12; 12.42). It also occurs twice in the mixed-marriage list of Ezra (10.25, 31).

The name Hasshub occurs three additional times in Nehemiah (3.23; 10.23; 11.15), but only here is the identification the son of Pahathmoab given. This is a family or clan name meaning “ruler of Moab.” Good News Translation transliterates it as two separate words. Other versions use a hyphen between the two parts (New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). See Ezra 2.6 for comments on the writing of this name.

Repaired another section is literally “repaired a second section.” This expression occurs several times in the following verses (19, 20, 21, 24, 27, 30). Some translations, including Revised English Bible and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, retain “second” in each instance, without indicating what the first section would be. Hasshub did indeed repair two sections (see verse 23 below), and some others did likewise (see verses 4 and 21, 18 and 24, 5 and 27). Some commentators believe that the list may be incomplete, so not every occurrence of “a second section” is matched with the first one. Other translations understand “second” to refer to “another” section of wall (so Revised Standard Version, Nouvelle Bible Segond, Luther). This is ambiguous, implying either a “second” section or a “different” section from the last one that was referred to. Still others understand this expression to mean “the next” section of wall (so Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). In this verse translators should make it clear that the two men repaired two sections: an unidentified section and the Tower of the Ovens. Translators may say “another” section and include a footnote to indicate that the Hebrew text says “second.”

The Tower of the Ovens was a place for baking bread or firing pottery. According to Neh 12.38, it was south of the Broad Wall. New Jerusalem Bible calls it “the Furnace Tower.” If the receptor culture is not familiar with Ovens or furnaces, then a description may be used instead of a name. Some translators have called this “the Tower where bread was made.”

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 .