Nehemia 9:5

9:5 The Levites – Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah – said, “Stand up and bless the LORD your God!”

“May you be blessed, O LORD our God, from age to age. ¹  May your glorious name ²  be blessed; may it be lifted up above all blessing and praise.

Nehemia 9:29

9:29 And you solemnly admonished them in order to return them to your law, but they behaved presumptuously and did not obey your commandments. They sinned against your ordinances – those by which an individual, if he obeys them, ³  will live. They boldly turned from you; ⁴  they rebelled ⁵  and did not obey.

[9:5]  ¹ tc The MT reads here only “from age to age,” without the preceding words “May you be blessed, O LORD our God” which are included in the present translation. But apparently something has dropped out of the text. This phrase occurs elsewhere in the OT as a description of the Lord (see Ps 41:13; 106:48), and it seems best to understand it here in that light. The LXX adds “And Ezra said” at the beginning of v. 6 as a transition: “And Ezra said, ‘You alone are the LORD.” Without this addition (which is not included by most modern English translations) the speakers of vv. 9:5b-10:1 continue to be the Levites of v. 5a.

[9:5]  ² tn Heb “the name of your glory.”

[9:29]  ³ tn Heb “if a man keep.” See note on the word “obey” in Neh 1:5.

[9:29]  ⁴ tn Heb “they gave a stubborn shoulder.”

[9:29]  ⁵ tn Heb “they stiffened their neck.”