Nehemiah 4 — Prayer, armed guarding and the work (conventional 4:7–23) — Hebrew and Greek compared
Disparate in this chapter: H 4:4, H 4:6, H 4:10, H 4:17
Each card keeps the independently rendered source readings above their shared comparison and reception notes. The badge records the source’s governing classification; disparate readings are marked in red. Each reading retains its original reference.
Nehemiah 4 — Prayer, armed guarding and the work (conventional 4:7–23)
H 4:1–5 — The threat and the burden of the work
Verse H 4:1 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 4:1 | conventional 4:7
When Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that healing had come to Jerusalem's walls, that the breaches were beginning to close, they became very angry.
Greek–English (G)
G 14:1
When Sanaballat, Tobia, the Arabs and the Ammanites heard that growth had risen on Jerusalem's walls, that the breaches were beginning to be blocked, it seemed very bad to them.
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: H includes the Ashdodites; G omits them. H uses the healing image arukhah, while G uses growth, phye. Source H 4:1 and G 14:1 correspond to conventional English 4:7.
Verse H 4:2 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 4:2 | conventional 4:8
They all conspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem and cause confusion in it.
Greek–English (G)
G 14:2
They all gathered together to come and draw up for battle in Jerusalem.
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: H explicitly describes conspiracy and adds causing confusion; G describes assembling and battle formation without that added purpose.
Verse H 4:3 Similar
Hebrew–English (H)
H 4:3 | conventional 4:9
We prayed to our God and stationed a guard against them day and night because of them.
Greek–English (G)
G 14:3
We prayed to our God and stationed outposts against them day and night because of them.
Comparison and reception
Similar. Text: Both combine prayer with continuous guarding. G's plural advance guards or outposts is more specific than H's collective guard.
Verse H 4:4 Disparate
Hebrew–English (H)
H 4:4 | conventional 4:10
Judah said, “The strength of the burden-bearer is failing. There is much rubble, and we cannot build the wall.”
Greek–English (G)
G 14:4
Judah said, “The strength of the enemies has been crushed. There is much rubble, and we will not be able to build the wall.”
Comparison and reception
Disparate. Text: H names the burden-bearer's failing strength. G instead names the enemies' crushed strength while retaining the workers' inability to build. The surprising Greek subject is not corrected to laborers.
Verse H 4:5 Same
Hebrew–English (H)
H 4:5 | conventional 4:11
Our adversaries said, “They will neither know nor see until we come among them, kill them, and stop the work.”
Greek–English (G)
G 14:5
Those who were afflicting us said, “They will neither know nor see until we come among them, murder them, and bring the work to a stop.”
Comparison and reception
Same. Text: Both preserve the planned surprise attack, killing and cessation of construction; no part of the hostile plan is softened or supplied as accomplished.
H 4:6–9 — The warning and the defense
Verse H 4:6 Disparate
Hebrew–English (H)
H 4:6 | conventional 4:12
When the Jews who lived beside them came, they told us ten times, “From every place, you must return to us.”
Greek–English (G)
G 14:6
When the Jews who lived beside them came, they told us, “They are coming up against us from every place.”
Comparison and reception
Disparate. Text: H explicitly has ten times and the difficult asher tashuvu alenu, where you return to us. The English appeal is provisional; the relative construction and the relation of from every place remain uncertain. G omits ten times and states a coming up against us, understood as the reported threat. It does not supply the verb needed to settle H. Rabbinic: The commentary presented as Rashi interprets the warning as a call to gather from scattered building positions to meet the enemy [R4, 4:6]. Its expanded tactical account does not remove the underlying grammatical uncertainty.
Verse H 4:7 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 4:7 | conventional 4:13
I stationed people in the lowest parts of the place behind the wall, in the exposed areas. I stationed the people by families, with their swords, spears and bows.
Greek–English (G)
G 14:7
I stationed people in the lowest parts of the place behind the wall, in the sheltered areas. I stationed the people by local groups, with their swords, their spears and their bows.
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: H's exposed or bare places contrast with G's sheltered places. H groups the people by families; G uses demoi, local communities or divisions. People is supplied only as the first stationing verb's implicit object, explicit in the next clause. Saints: Sulpitius Severus, Sacred History 2.11, retells the posting of guards as part of Nehemiah's perseverance despite surrounding opposition. This later narrative is reception, not evidence for an otherwise unrecorded military detail [S-SULP].
Verse H 4:8 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 4:8 | conventional 4:14
I looked, arose, and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, great and fearsome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and daughters, your wives and your houses.”
Greek–English (G)
G 14:8
I looked, arose, and said to the honored men, the commanders and the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember our God, great and fearsome, and draw up for battle for your brothers, your sons and daughters, your wives and your houses.”
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: H names the Lord; G names our God. Both retain every listed family relationship and the houses being defended; G's battle-formation verb is more specific than H's fight.
Verse H 4:9 Same
Hebrew–English (H)
H 4:9 | conventional 4:15
When our enemies heard that their plan had become known to us, and God had frustrated their counsel, we all returned to the wall, each to his work.
Greek–English (G)
G 14:9
When our enemies heard that it had become known to us, and God had scattered their counsel, we all returned to the wall, each to his work.
Comparison and reception
Same. Text: Both attribute the failure of the hostile plan to God and report every worker's return. H's implicit information is minimally identified as their plan in English; no additional disclosure episode is invented.
H 4:10–14 — Armed builders and the gathering signal
Verse H 4:10 Disparate
Hebrew–English (H)
H 4:10 | conventional 4:16
From that day on, half my young men did the work, and half held the spears, shields, bows and coats of armor. The officers were behind all the house of Judah,
Greek–English (G)
G 14:10
From that day on, half of those who had been shaken out did the work, and half of them held firm. Spears, shields, bows and breastplates were there, and the leaders were behind all the house of Judah,
Comparison and reception
Disparate. Text: H names my young men; G instead has the perfect passive those shaken out, a difficult designation left provisional. G's weapons are nominative, separately listed after held firm; were there supplies the minimal existential relation. They are not silently made the direct objects of H's holding verb.
Verse H 4:11 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 4:11 | conventional 4:17
those building the wall. The burden-bearers carried their loads, each doing the work with one hand and holding a weapon with the other.
Greek–English (G)
G 14:11
those building on the wall. Those carrying with lifting gear were armed; with one hand each did the work itself, and the other held a dart.
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: Both begin by completing the builders clause from the previous source verse. G names artersin, lifting or carrying equipment, and arms, where H names burden-bearing and loading. G's bolis is a projectile or dart; H's shelach is rendered more broadly as a weapon. The exact carrying apparatus is not reconstructed.
Verse H 4:12 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 4:12 | conventional 4:18
The builders worked with each man's sword strapped to his waist, and the one sounding the shofar was beside me.
Greek–English (G)
G 14:12
The builders worked with each man's sword girded at his waist, and the one sounding the horn was beside him.
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: H puts the horn-sounder beside me, the narrator. G explicitly has beside him, whose antecedent is not stated afresh. Both retain the builders' swords and the signaling horn.
Verse H 4:13 Same
Hebrew–English (H)
H 4:13 | conventional 4:19
I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “The work is great and widespread, and we are separated along the wall, far from one another.
Greek–English (G)
G 14:13
I said to the honored men, the leaders and the rest of the people, “The work is widespread and great, and we are scattered along the wall, each far from his brother.
Comparison and reception
Same. Text: Both ground the need for a common signal in the work's extent and the workers' separation.
Verse H 4:14 Same
Hebrew–English (H)
H 4:14 | conventional 4:20
At whatever place you hear the sound of the shofar, gather to us there. Our God will fight for us.”
Greek–English (G)
G 14:14
At whatever place you hear the sound of the horn, gather to us there, and our God will wage war for us.”
Comparison and reception
Same. Text: The assembly signal, gathering point and confession of divine aid correspond. H's shofar and G's keratine both identify a horn instrument.
H 4:15–17 — Work by day and guard by night
Verse H 4:15 Same
Hebrew–English (H)
H 4:15 | conventional 4:21
We continued doing the work, while half of them held spears from the rising of dawn until the stars came out.
Greek–English (G)
G 14:15
We continued doing the work, while half of them held spears from the rising of dawn until the stars came out.
Comparison and reception
Same. Text: Both retain the shift from we to half of them and the dawn-to-stars duration; no unstated length of a working day is calculated.
Verse H 4:16 Different
Hebrew–English (H)
H 4:16 | conventional 4:22
At that time I also told the people, “Let each man and his young servant lodge within Jerusalem. They will be a guard for us by night, and workers by day.”
Greek–English (G)
G 14:16
At that time I told the people, “Lodge within Jerusalem, and let the night be a watch for you, and the day, work.”
Comparison and reception
Different. Text: H expressly pairs each man with his young servant and makes them a guard for us. G directly commands the people to lodge and describes night as a watch for you. The individual servant clause is not added to G.
Verse H 4:17 Disparate
Hebrew–English (H)
H 4:17 | conventional 4:23
Neither I, my brothers, my young men, nor the men of the guard following me took off our clothes—each man with his weapon at the water.
Greek–English (G)
G 14:17
I was there, with the men of the guard behind me, and not one of us took off his clothes.
Comparison and reception
Disparate. Text: G omits my brothers and my young men and the closing weapon/water clause. H's final words are literally each man, his weapon, the water; with and at express a provisional relation only. The difficult clause does not explicitly say bathe, fetch water, or remove a weapon. It remains open for specialist review. Rabbinic: The commentary presented as Rashi instead extends the preceding negation and reads shilho as removing clothes, using an Aramaic comparison: they did not remove them even for washing [R4, 4:17]. This is a competing lexical interpretation, not an explicit bathing verb in H.