All the assembly of those who had returned from the captivity …: All the assembly is used by the author to indicate the unity and united action of the people of Israel at that time. The expression who had returned from the captivity highlights the parallel between the people of the first exodus from Egypt who lived in booths in the wilderness and these people of the second exodus who returned from Babylonia and who made booths and dwelt in the booths. This parallel is further emphasized by the reference to Jeshua, which is an alternate spelling for Joshua. The return from captivity is a major theme in Ezra and Nehemiah (see Ezra 2.1).

Dwelt in the booths: During the time of the festival, the people “lived” (Good News Translation) in the shelters they had built or they “inhabited” them. This required a temporary kind of lifestyle for the duration of the festival.

For from the days of Jeshua the son of Nun to that day the people of Israel had not done so: For is a conjunction that introduces an explanation of the current situation in relation to the past. Good News Translation restructures the sentence and expresses the explanatory idea of the conjunction implicitly. From the days of means “from the time of” or “since the time of.” However, it is not clear what is meant by the statement from the days of Jeshua … had not done so. There are references to the observance of the Feast of Booths in the time of Solomon (2 Chr 8.13) and when the first group returned from Babylonia in the time of Jeshua the high priest (Ezra 3.4). This statement cannot refer to this latter time because of the identification of Jeshua as the son of Nun. It may be that since the time of Joshua all the assembly had not observed this great festival together as a community. Good News Translation interprets this to refer to Joshua and harmonizes the spelling of the name accordingly (also New International Version, Nouvelle version Segond révisée, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). It is recommended that the usual spelling of Joshua be used here in the translation.

There was very great rejoicing: Literally, the text reads “the joy was very great.” New Jerusalem Bible expresses “joy” as “merrymaking,” but this archaic English word may appear to be too flippant and light for the theme of joyfulness that is repeated here again (verses 10 and 12 above; see also Deut 16.13-15).

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 .