A subtitle may be used here to focus on the night ride of Nehemiah to inspect the walls of Jerusalem in order to make a plan for what needed to be done. New Revised Standard Version has “Nehemiah’s Inspection of the Walls” for verses 11-16, while Bible en français courant says “Nehemiah inspects the city walls” for the rest of the chapter.

After only a few days Nehemiah began surveying the situation of the walls. Was there three days does not mean that he stayed there only for three days, but that his next action began after three days (compare Ezra 8.32). Although this may be a symbolic number indicating a short time, it should nevertheless be translated as “three days,” or the equivalent temporal expression in the receptor language should be used. In some languages length of time is counted by nights. Here this will be “three nights.”

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 .