We will restore these and require nothing from them: The nobles and officials promised to restore these. As Good News Translation makes clear, restore these means that they would “give the property back.” Furthermore, to require nothing from them means that they would require no more collateral on their loans. In brief, they promised to do what Nehemiah said they should do.

I called the priests, and took an oath of them to do as they had promised: Grammatically the pronoun them apparently refers to the priests, but the function of the priests is not clear. The statement makes it appear that the people to whom Nehemiah was speaking were required to take an oath … to do as they had promised. Their verbal promise was not enough in itself. Since it was the nobles and officials who had just made a promise, it is more natural to conclude that the priests were to administer an oath to those who had made the promise (so Good News Translation, Bible en français courant). The oath was accompanied by a curse in case of failure to keep the promise (see the comments Ezra at 10.5). For priests see Ezra 1.5.

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 .