Ezra opened the book: The Hebrew text says that “Ezra opened the writing.” Actually, he unrolled the scroll because the book form had not yet been developed at this time in history.

In the sight of all the people is literally “in the eyes of all the people.” Some languages will use a similar expression. Good News Translation renders this in contemporary English. Bible en français courant simplifies it by saying “everybody saw him,” while New Living Translation says “in full view of all the people.”

For he was above all the people: He stood higher than the people because he was standing on a platform. Good News Translation gives the impression that the platform was high up, but the text does not indicate how high it was above the people.

When he opened it is a temporal clause introducing what happened next. This should be translated to indicate that this was a normal sequence of events, and not an unexpected dramatic development (compare Good News Translation).

All the people stood up as a sign of respect for the word of God. In some languages this will be said “all the people arose and stood.” In other languages a special verb form will be used to show that they did not merely rise and sit down again, but remained standing.

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 .