The next section of the prayer (verses 9-11) describes how God delivered the people of Israel in the exodus from Egypt. The threat to their survival in Egypt did not stop God’s plan to fulfill his promise to give them land.
Thou didst see … and hear …: In a parallel construction, the prayer recalls that God saw their plight in Egypt and he heard their cries of desperation at the Red Sea crossing (see Exo 2.23-25; 14.10, 15).
Affliction refers to the wretched conditions or the “misery” (New English Bible) of the Israelites while they were living in slavery in Egypt. God not only saw their sorry state, but he recognized and understood how much they were suffering. For the first line, translators may say “God saw how much people were making our ancestors suffer while they were living in Egypt.”
Their cry refers to the Israelite cries of desperation at the Red Sea as they saw Pharaoh’s army approaching behind them. The meaning of cry here is not weeping as in sorrow, nor is it a “call” as when a person calls someone. Its meaning here is to make pleas about one’s condition or to ask for help, either aloud or silently. For the last line, Parole de Vie says “You heard them cry for help….”
Red Sea in Hebrew is literally “reed sea.” Many scholars think that this refers to the marsh area between the Gulf of Suez and the Mediterranean Sea. Like Revised Standard Version, many versions follow the Septuagint and the Greek of the New Testament and refer to this body of water as the Red Sea. Others like New Jerusalem Bible call it the “Sea of Reeds,” or this name may be put in a footnote as New English Bible has done. A “sea” is a very large body of water that may be described as a “great lake.” Translators should used the same term here as in Exo 13.18. An explanation of the Red Sea or the “Sea of Reeds” may be included in the glossary.
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 .