But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them: The quotation continues with an additional condition that will reverse the result of the first condition. This is based on two actions: a change of heart and obedience to God. The Hebrew connective conjunction at the beginning of this verse expresses adversative meaning, so Revised Standard Version has but. The first part of the condition is if you return to me from the verb “to turn back, to return.” This is also the word used for “repentance” and “change of ways.” The second part of the condition is twofold: to keep God’s commandments and to do them. The two verbs keep and do are closely related in meaning, and form a single unit when used together. The first verb perhaps emphasizes general obedience to the commands of God, while the second emphasizes putting them into practice. New English Bible translates “observe my commandments and fulfil them,” while New Jerusalem Bible uses a similar form with “keep my commandments and practise them.” Some translators, however, interpret the meaning of the second verb as intensifying the first, for example, “carefully keep my commandments” (New American Bible).

Commandments is the plural of the Hebrew word mitswah (see verse 7 above).

Though your dispersed be under the farthest skies …: If these new conditions are fulfilled, God has promised to gather his people from wherever they are. This will happen no matter where his dispersed people may be, even if they are under the farthest skies. Dispersed may be rendered “cast out” (King James Version), “exiled” (New International Version) or “banished” (New Jerusalem Bible). Under the furthest skies, which is literally “at the end of the heavens,” is a hyperbole used to emphasize the full meaning of the promise. It may be translated with a similar expression, for example, “to the farthest part of the heavens” (New King James Version ) or “at the very sky’s end” (New Jerusalem Bible), or with an equivalent idiom, such as “to/at the ends of the earth” (Good News Translation, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), “at the farthest horizon” (New International Version), or “to the farthest corner of the world” (New American Bible, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy).

Gather them thence and bring them to the place which I have chosen: The author again uses two verbs (gather and bring) to state two closely related actions. The scattered people will be gathered or brought together from where they are. More precisely, they will be brought back to a specific location, namely, the place which I have chosen. This is Jerusalem, where the Temple was built for the worship of God.

To make my name dwell there: In Hebrew to make … dwell is a single basic verb meaning “to dwell” or “to settle” somewhere. Here it has the causative meaning “to cause to dwell” and the object of the verb is my name. Name refers to God, who chooses to dwell in the Temple (see Ezra 6.12). Many translations follow the text somewhat closely by retaining name as a figure of speech (New International Version, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). Other translations express an interpretation of the figure, for example, “to reveal my presence there” (Bible en français courant) or “where you have chosen to be worshiped” (Contemporary English Version).

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 .