דִּבְרֵי נְחֶמְיָה בֶּן חֲכַלְיָה וַיְהִי בְחֹדֶשׁ כִּסְלֵו שְׁנַת עֶשְׂרִים וַאֲנִי הָיִיתִי בְּשׁוּשַׁן הַבִּירָה
KJ (King James translation): The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace,
BN (BibleNet translation): The memoirs of Nechem-Yah ben Chachiylah. It happened, in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in the Shushan palace...
VA YEHI: Note the prose-narrative style. These are memoirs, not historical accounts, not psalms or poetry, not oracles.
NECHEM-YAH: Nechem-Yah means "Yah will comfort", reflecting, like most of the Yehudit names that we encounter in the books of the return, the continued worship of the moon-goddess Yah as part of the polytheon Elohim. It does not occur as a name at any previous point of Yisra-Eli history.
BEN CHACHAL-YAH [BEN CHACHIYLAH}: likewise a name with no previous occurrences, and one which seems, at first glance, also to be a Yah name, which is why the Masoretes have pointed it the way they have. But what would that mean? The root is not CHAKAH = "to wait", as Strong speculates, because that has a Hey (ה) ending, where this is definitely Chet-Chaf-Lamed, a root that signifies "dusky" if not fully "dark". However, and this the reason why my transliteration and my translation name him differently, I think this is probably, like my own name, a way of remembering the town from which the family came: 1 Samuel 23:19 and 26:1 both speak of the Hill of Chachiylah, in the wilderness of Ziph.
BEN CHACHAL-YAH [BEN CHACHIYLAH}: likewise a name with no previous occurrences, and one which seems, at first glance, also to be a Yah name, which is why the Masoretes have pointed it the way they have. But what would that mean? The root is not CHAKAH = "to wait", as Strong speculates, because that has a Hey (ה) ending, where this is definitely Chet-Chaf-Lamed, a root that signifies "dusky" if not fully "dark". However, and this the reason why my transliteration and my translation name him differently, I think this is probably, like my own name, a way of remembering the town from which the family came: 1 Samuel 23:19 and 26:1 both speak of the Hill of Chachiylah, in the wilderness of Ziph.
VE CHODESH KISLEV: For the first time, I believe, a month is denoted by name rather than by number; these were acquired in Bavel during the exile, and replaced the calendar used previously by the Yehudim, which is why, to this da, the New Year (Rosh ha Shanah) takes place in the seventh rather than the first month. For my fuller essay on the subject, click here. Kislev falls around November-December.
SHENAT ESRIM: "of what? some king's reign? the start of the return? your own life? This needs some more precise detail. Please revise this and send it to the editorial office for re-checking. Thank you. The Redactor". Alas, that note was never sent, and the vagueness of the published text has led to all manner of scholarly debate down the centuries. The generally accepted view is that the king was Artaxerxes I, who came to the throne in 465 BCE, making his twentieth year 445 BCE.
SHUSHAN BIYRAH: Shushan is Susa, the Persian king's winter capital. I have translated BIYRAH as "palace", though really the word means "fortress"; and probably it was both, in the way that European castles throughout the Middle Ages were always both. Other translators have gone for "capitol" and "citadel", and the same is true of these as well.
SHENAT ESRIM: "of what? some king's reign? the start of the return? your own life? This needs some more precise detail. Please revise this and send it to the editorial office for re-checking. Thank you. The Redactor". Alas, that note was never sent, and the vagueness of the published text has led to all manner of scholarly debate down the centuries. The generally accepted view is that the king was Artaxerxes I, who came to the throne in 465 BCE, making his twentieth year 445 BCE.
SHUSHAN BIYRAH: Shushan is Susa, the Persian king's winter capital. I have translated BIYRAH as "palace", though really the word means "fortress"; and probably it was both, in the way that European castles throughout the Middle Ages were always both. Other translators have gone for "capitol" and "citadel", and the same is true of these as well.
1:2 VA YAV'O CHANANI ECHAD ME ACHAI HU VA ANASHIM MIYHUDAH VA ESH'ALEM AL HA YEHUDIM HA PELEYTAH ASHER NISH'ARU MIN HA SHEVI VE AL YERU'SHALA'IM
KJ: That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.
BN: That Chanani, one of my kinsmen, came from Yehudah, he and certain men; and I asked them about the Yehudim who had escaped, who were left of the captivity, and about Yeru-Shala'im.
1:3 VA YOMRU LI HA NISH'ARIM ASHER NISH'ARU MIN HA SHEVI SHAM BA MEDIYNAH BE RA'AH GEDOLAH U VE CHERPHAH VE CHOMAT YERU-SHALA'IM MEPHORATSET U SHE'AREYHA NITSTU VA ESH
KJ: And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
1:6 TEHI NA AZNECHA KASHEVET VE EYNEYCHA PHETUCHOT LISHMO'A EL TEPHILAT AVDECHA ASHER ANOCHI MITPALEL LEPHANEYCHA HAYOM YOMAM VA LAILAH AL BENEY YISRA-EL AVADEYCHA U MITVADEH AL CHAT'OT BENEY YISRA-EL ASHER CHAT'ANU LACH VA ANI U VEIT AVI CHAT'ANU
KJ: Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned.
BN: "Let your ear now be attentive, and your eyes open, that you may hearken to the prayer of your servant, which I pray before you at this time, day and night, for the Beney Yisra-El your servants, while I confess the sins of the Beney Yisra-El, which we have sinned against you; yes, I and my father's house have sinned...
1:8 ZECHAR NA ET HA DAVAR ASHER TSIVIYTA ET MOSHEH AVDECHA LE'MOR ATEM TIM'ALU ANI APHITS ET'CHEM BA AMIM
KJ: Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations:
BN: "Remember, I beseech you, the word that you instructed your servant Mosheh, saying: 'If you deal treacherously, I will scatter you abroad among the peoples...
1:9 VE SHAVTEM ELAI U SHEMARTEM MITSVOTAY VA ASIYTEM OTAM IM YIHEYEH NIDACHACHEM BIKTSEH HA SHAMAYIM MI SHAM AKABTSEM VE HAVIY'OTIM EL HA MAKOM ASHER BACHARTI LESHAKEN ET SHEMI SHAM
KJ: But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.
BN: "'But if you return to me, and keep my commandments, and observe them, though your dispersed were in the uttermost part of the heavens, yet would I gather them from there, and bring them to the place that I have chosen to cause my name to dwell there'...
וַיָּבֹא חֲנָנִי אֶחָד מֵאַחַי הוּא וַאֲנָשִׁים מִיהוּדָה וָאֶשְׁאָלֵם עַל הַיְּהוּדִים הַפְּלֵיטָה אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁאֲרוּ מִן הַשֶּׁבִי וְעַל יְרוּשָׁלִָם
BN: That Chanani, one of my kinsmen, came from Yehudah, he and certain men; and I asked them about the Yehudim who had escaped, who were left of the captivity, and about Yeru-Shala'im.
CHANANI: A man with a similar name, CHANAN-YAH, will appear in chapter 7, when Nechem-Yah places him in charge of the citadel of Yeru-Shala'im - and it may be that Chanani is the Aramaic, but Chanan-Yah the Yehudit way of saying the same name; though the existence side-by-side of both names in 1 Chronicles 25:4 disputes this. There is also a Chanani in Nehemiah 12:36, one of a group of musicians who provided the orchestra for the dedication ceremony at the completion of the wall. And yet another Chanani is listed in Ezra 10:20 as one of the priests who had married outside the tribe.
ECHAD ME ACHAI: Biological brother, or simply tribal kinsman?
SHEVI...PLEYTAH: escaped? returned, surely? Or perhaps they had "come without first obtaining permission", in order to alert their fellow Yehudim to the parlous state of the community back in Yehudah. The following verse speaks of the Yehudim who had escaped the original captivity, in 586 BCE, at the time of Nebuchadnezzar, who "were left of the captivity" in the sense that they had gone on living in Yehudah ever since; but this is seventy years after Zeru-Bavel took a very large group of returnees with him to re-establish Yeru-Shala'im, and a distinction between them and the "remnant" makes no sense in this context. For the second time in as many verses, the vagueness of Nechem-Yah makes it hard to understand his words.
וַיֹּאמְרוּ לִי הַנִּשְׁאָרִים אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁאֲרוּ מִן הַשְּׁבִי שָׁם בַּמְּדִינָה בְּרָעָה גְדֹלָה וּבְחֶרְפָּה וְחוֹמַת יְרוּשָׁלִַם מְפֹרָצֶת וּשְׁעָרֶיהָ נִצְּתוּ בָאֵשׁ
BN: And they said to me: "The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are suffering terrible affliction, to a point of serious despondency; the wall of Yeru-Shala'im has been broken down, and its gates were set on fire."
CHERPHAH: Used in many contexts throughout the Tanach, sometimes as "scorn" (Job 16:10), sometimes as "contempt" (Micah 6:16), sometimes as "reproach" (Psalm 22:7 and 39:9), but I think it is the usage in Isaiah 54:4 which is intended here: "desolation". The root is CHARAPH, which also yields CHOREPH, the word for "winter".
CHOMAT...ESH: As with Ezra, for some reason Nechem-Yah does not fill in the detail of this event - perhaps because everyone in his day knew about it, so the statement would have been prolix. Not so for us, but rather than repeat it here, my full account of the Greco-Persian war in relation to this can be found at Ezra 7:6.
1:4 VA YEHI KE SHAM'I ET HA DEVARIM HA ELEH YASHAVTI VE EVKEH VA ET'ABLAH YAMIM VA EHI TSOM U MITPALEL LIPHNEY ELOHEY HA SHAMAYIM
KJ: And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,
BN: And it came to pass, upon hearing these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days; and I fasted and prayed before the gods of the heavens.
CHOMAT...ESH: As with Ezra, for some reason Nechem-Yah does not fill in the detail of this event - perhaps because everyone in his day knew about it, so the statement would have been prolix. Not so for us, but rather than repeat it here, my full account of the Greco-Persian war in relation to this can be found at Ezra 7:6.
1:4 VA YEHI KE SHAM'I ET HA DEVARIM HA ELEH YASHAVTI VE EVKEH VA ET'ABLAH YAMIM VA EHI TSOM U MITPALEL LIPHNEY ELOHEY HA SHAMAYIM
וַיְהִי כְּשָׁמְעִי אֶת הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה יָשַׁבְתִּי וָאֶבְכֶּה וָאֶתְאַבְּלָה יָמִים וָאֱהִי צָם וּמִתְפַּלֵּל לִפְנֵי אֱלֹהֵי הַשָּׁמָיִם
KJ: And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,
BN: And it came to pass, upon hearing these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days; and I fasted and prayed before the gods of the heavens.
SHAM'I: we had this in Ezra (9:3); a variation on SHAM'ATI, which would be "I heard".
EVKEH: also a grammatical variation, or is it simply our first case of Nechem-Yah not really being terribly fluent in Yehudit? Like Ezra, who also makes endless grammar and spelling errors, he has grown up in Persia, his great-grandparents lived in captivity under the Babylonians, and it has been the worst part of a hundred years since Yehudit was the official, daily language. A lot of his errors, throughout the book, will sound like he knows the Aramaic and is guessing what the Yehudit must be, but gets it wrong.
ET'ABLAH: ditto
TSOM: Again like Ezra, though in Ezra's case we get sufficient detail to be identify the likely dates of his fasting, and the historical events behind those dates - see my notes to Ezra 9:5, which include a paragraph listing all the major fast days associated with the destruction of the First Temple. Nechem-Yah's seems rather more spontaneous than calendric, an emotional response rather than a liturgical obligation.
Are these all Aramit (Aramaic, but using the Yehudit word for it)? Or merely misused variations within the Yehudit?
ELOHEY HA SHAMAYIM: And yes, I know, I have said this a hundred times, but my readers keep on refusing to believe me. This occasion is simply unequivocal, and the KJ translators must have known it. ELOHEY HA SHAMAYIM is 100% plural!
1:5 VA OMAR ANA YHVH ELOHEY HA SHAMAYIM HA EL HA GADOL HA NORA SHOMER HA BERIYT VE CHESED LE OHAVAV U LE SHOMREY MITSVOTAV
KJ: And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:
BN: And said: "I beseech you, YHVH, god of the heavens, the great and awful god, who keeps the covenant and shows mercy to those who love him and keep his commandments...
וָאֹמַר אָנָּא יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי הַשָּׁמַיִם הָאֵל הַגָּדוֹל וְהַנּוֹרָא שֹׁמֵר הַבְּרִית וָחֶסֶד לְאֹהֲבָיו וּלְשֹׁמְרֵי מִצְוֹתָיו
KJ: And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:
BN: And said: "I beseech you, YHVH, god of the heavens, the great and awful god, who keeps the covenant and shows mercy to those who love him and keep his commandments...
HA EL HA GADOL HA NORA: almost but not quite the opening of the Amidah. Other parts of the verse also reflect later liturgy, suggesting the liturgists borrowed from here, but not fully quoting.
We have not yet been told anything about Nechem-Yah; from this verse we might assume that he was himself a Kohen or a Levite.
We have not yet been told anything about Nechem-Yah; from this verse we might assume that he was himself a Kohen or a Levite.
תְּהִי נָא אָזְנְךָ קַשֶּׁבֶת וְעֵינֶיךָ פְתוּחוֹת לִשְׁמֹעַ אֶל תְּפִלַּת עַבְדְּךָ אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מִתְפַּלֵּל לְפָנֶיךָ הַיּוֹם יוֹמָם וָלַיְלָה עַל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל עֲבָדֶיךָ וּמִתְוַדֶּה עַל חַטֹּאות בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר חָטָאנוּ לָךְ וַאֲנִי וּבֵית אָבִי חָטָאנוּ
KJ: Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned.
BN: "Let your ear now be attentive, and your eyes open, that you may hearken to the prayer of your servant, which I pray before you at this time, day and night, for the Beney Yisra-El your servants, while I confess the sins of the Beney Yisra-El, which we have sinned against you; yes, I and my father's house have sinned...
Is this the formal liturgy of Vidu'i (confession) and Selichot (forgiveneness) that alreay existed in his day; or is it improvised, spontaneous prayer? We don't know, probably can't know, but the question is important, because, four hundred years later, when Talmudic Judaism is developed, the early Rabbis (Joshua, Akiva, Ishmael, several Gamliels) will engage in passionate debate as to whether there should be a formal liturgy that everyone must follow, or an open liturgy, into which personal prayers of an improvised or spontaneous nature may be introduced at set times, or no liturgy but only the latter. Knowing what had been done in First and Second Temple times was crucial in reaching what was ultimately indecision in this regard.
Whether or not this was the origin, many of the phrases in this verse can be found in the Vidu'i and Selichot, as well as the Tachanun, both of Yom Kippur and daily worship.
And even before all of the above, the fact that Nechem-Yah, and Ezra elsewhere, are engaging in the act of prayer, is historically significant, because in Temple times the method of worship was sacrifice and Psalm, and we do not know if there were also prayers, but we do know that we have no record, not even a passing mention of such, outside the Psalms. When did prayer begin then? There are hints of it at various points of the Tanach (see my book "A Myrtle Among Reeds" which includes an exploration of this, and lists many of them), but these in Ezra and Nechem-Yah are the first unequivocal confirmations that prayer had become the norm - can we assume that prayer was introduced as a substitute for sacrifice during the Babylonian captivity?
And even before all of the above, the fact that Nechem-Yah, and Ezra elsewhere, are engaging in the act of prayer, is historically significant, because in Temple times the method of worship was sacrifice and Psalm, and we do not know if there were also prayers, but we do know that we have no record, not even a passing mention of such, outside the Psalms. When did prayer begin then? There are hints of it at various points of the Tanach (see my book "A Myrtle Among Reeds" which includes an exploration of this, and lists many of them), but these in Ezra and Nechem-Yah are the first unequivocal confirmations that prayer had become the norm - can we assume that prayer was introduced as a substitute for sacrifice during the Babylonian captivity?
LACH: Here, and in the next verse, and frequently in the liturgy. Technically LACH is feminine; the masculine would be LECHA. The word un-pointed could be either, but the Masoretes who added the pointing clearly felt that LACH was what it said. A residue of the mother-goddess?
1:7 CHAVOL CHAVALNU LACH VE LO SHAMARNU ET HA MITSVOT VE ET HA CHUKIM VE ET HA MISHPATIM ASHER TSIVIYTA ET MOSHEH AVDECHA
KJ: We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses.
BN: "We have acted shamefully towards you, and we have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which you instructed your servant Mosheh...
חֲבֹל חָבַלְנוּ לָךְ וְלֹא שָׁמַרְנוּ אֶת הַמִּצְוֹת וְאֶת הַחֻקִּים וְאֶת הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתָ אֶת מֹשֶׁה עַבְדֶּךָ
KJ: We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses.
BN: "We have acted shamefully towards you, and we have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which you instructed your servant Mosheh...
Sounds like Yom Kippur liturgy, but perhaps it's a variation. Ezra's prayers feel more like standard Selichot than the specifics of Yom Kippur.
CHAVAL: Complex word, in any circumstances, but especially this one. In modern Ivrit we would use CHAVAL for "waste", as in CHAVAL AL HA ZEMAN - "what a waste of time", and the sense of "shame" would be implicit, albeit a very different sort of "shame" than the one Nechem-Yah intends here. There is also a usage of the word in which things become spoilt (Ecclesiastes 5:5, or 5:6 in some versions), or completely spoiled (Daniel 2:44), or entirely corrupt - see for example Job 34:31; and this latter is probably what Nechem-Yah intends here. A third possibility, which is definitely not intended here, are the pangs that a woman suffers, for which see Isaiah 66:7 or Jeremiah 22:23. However...
Nechem-Yah speaks here, albeit indirectly, of the covenant, and the root, CHAVAL, is all about binding things with cords, or binding people with pledges - Proverbs 20:16 or 27:13 as you prefer; but more significantly Deuteronomy 24:6 and 17, and Exodus 22:25, and it is almost certainly this usage which is at the heart of one of the central images that leitmotif through the Book of Zechar-Yah, the "Measuring Line" - see my notes to Zechariah 11:7. Would Nechem-Yah have known the book of Zechar-Yah? If he was so deeply involved in the religious community that he knew the prayers by heart, it is unimaginable, at that moment of history, that he would not have known the prophecies, and the imagery, of Zechar-Yah: it is, after all, Zechar-Yah's message that he is about to go to the Persian king to get permission to execute.
זְכָר נָא אֶת הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתָ אֶת מֹשֶׁה עַבְדְּךָ לֵאמֹר אַתֶּם תִּמְעָלוּ אֲנִי אָפִיץ אֶתְכֶם בָּעַמִּים
KJ: Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations:
BN: "Remember, I beseech you, the word that you instructed your servant Mosheh, saying: 'If you deal treacherously, I will scatter you abroad among the peoples...
ZECHAR NA: NA really just means "please", and is very much milder than the "I beseech thee" of the King James. Funny coincidence that I just wondered if he would have known Zechar-Yah, because that NA is very much one of the characteristics of Zechar-Yah's fellow Prophet Chagai's tone; see for example Chagai 2:2. See also verse 11, where he uses ANA, which also really means "please", but is a much stronger "please" than the mere NA, though still not strong enough to be translated as "I beseech you".
ATEM TIM'ALU...AMIM: Numerous possible sources for this (click here for the full list), though we need to note that Nechem-Yah quoting from Torah is in itself historically interesting, because the Torah as we know it has not yet been written down - his colleague Ezra may have started that work, or may be about to start it, but it is very much a work-in-progress, so we have to wonder: from what sources would Nechem-Yah have been able to quote? Probably the Kohanim and Leviyim had the whole Torah verbatim, as part of their expectation for smicha, but writing it down was still officially prohibited; and Nechem-Yah was not a Kohen or a Levi (and Rabbis hadn't been invented yet!). Added to which, two of the key source-texts are in Deuteronomy (4:27 and 28:64), and many scholars regard Deuteronomy as a Second Temple creation, so Nechem-Yah definitely could not have known it. Others think it may have been written down during the exile, on the basis that it risked being forgotten if the exile went on and there was only an oral tradition - in which case Nechem-Yah would have been very much aware of it. The full debate can be read here.
וְשַׁבְתֶּם אֵלַי וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם מִצְוֹתַי וַעֲשִׂיתֶם אֹתָם אִם יִהְיֶה נִדַּחֲכֶם בִּקְצֵה הַשָּׁמַיִם מִשָּׁם אֲקַבְּצֵם וַהֲבִיאֹתִים אֶל הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר בָּחַרְתִּי לְשַׁכֵּן אֶת שְׁמִי שָׁם
BN: "'But if you return to me, and keep my commandments, and observe them, though your dispersed were in the uttermost part of the heavens, yet would I gather them from there, and bring them to the place that I have chosen to cause my name to dwell there'...
U SHEMARTEM: Again there are large numbers of Biblical sources for this, but see, for example, Deuteronomy 11:13-15 - chosen by me because this, surely, every Jew would have known, it being the opening of the second paragraph of the Shema. And chosen by Nechem-Yah, I am sure, because this, precisely this, is what he is about to go to the king and ask for help achieving: the "ingathering of the exiles from the four corners of the world".
1:10 VE HEM AVADEYCHA VE AMECHA ASHER PADIYTA BE CHOCHACHA HA GADOL U VE YAD'CHA HA CHAZAKAH
KJ: Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.
BN: "Now these are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power, and by your strong hand...
1:11 ANA ADONAI TEHI NA AZNECHA KASHEVET EL TEPHILAT AVDECHA VE EL TEPHILAT AVADEYCHA HA CHAPHETSIM LE YIR'AH ET SHEMECHA VE HATSLIYCHAH NA LE AVDECHA HAYOM U TENE'HU LE RACHAMIM LIPHNEY HA ISH HA ZEH VA ANI HAYITI MASHKEH LA MELECH
KJ: O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king's cupbearer.
BN: "Please Lord, please let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants, who take delight from the awesome wonder of your name; and please, bestow prosperity on your servant this day, by granting him an empathetic response when he has his audience with this man." Now I was cupbearer to the king.
וְהֵם עֲבָדֶיךָ וְעַמֶּךָ אֲשֶׁר פָּדִיתָ בְּכֹחֲךָ הַגָּדוֹל וּבְיָדְךָ הַחֲזָקָה
KJ: Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.
BN: "Now these are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power, and by your strong hand...
אָנָּא אֲדֹנָי תְּהִי נָא אָזְנְךָ קַשֶּׁבֶת אֶל תְּפִלַּת עַבְדְּךָ וְאֶל תְּפִלַּת עֲבָדֶיךָ הַחֲפֵצִים לְיִרְאָה אֶת שְׁמֶךָ וְהַצְלִיחָה נָּא לְעַבְדְּךָ הַיּוֹם וּתְנֵהוּ לְרַחֲמִים לִפְנֵי הָאִישׁ הַזֶּה וַאֲנִי הָיִיתִי מַשְׁקֶה לַמֶּלֶךְ
KJ: O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king's cupbearer.
BN: "Please Lord, please let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants, who take delight from the awesome wonder of your name; and please, bestow prosperity on your servant this day, by granting him an empathetic response when he has his audience with this man." Now I was cupbearer to the king.
ANA: See my note to NA at verse 8. Here he uses both NA and ANA.
ADONAI: In the orthodox Jewish world, the name YHVH is never pronounced, with Adonai available as one of several pseudonyms. But here Adonai is used in its proper meaning, "Lord".
HA ISH HA ZEH: meaning the king.
Should the final part of this verse not in fact be the opening of the next verse? And therefore, in the Christian version, the opening of the next chapter.
MASHKEH LA MELECH: Now wait just a moment, I need to go back to the book of Genesis, because wasn't patriarch Yoseph in a state of captivity, just like the Beney Yisra-El now in Nechem-Yah's time; and wasn't there some strange story about a cup-bearer and his dream, as a result of which Yoseph got released from bondage, and was restored... and immediately became the governor of the land... Genesis 40:1 ff is the chapter, and verse 13 the specific, for Yoseph's interpretation of his dream: "Within three days shall Pharaoh lift up your head, and restore you to your office; and you shall give Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner when you were his butler." And wasn't that the very cup that Yoseph later had concealed in Bin-Yamin's luggage... So is this Nechem-Yah being historically coincident, because it really was his job; or is he aggrandising himself, "I will be the Yoseph of my people...", about to have an audience with his Persian Pharaoh and?.. cliffhangers in the Tanach? Who would have thought!
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