Nehemiah 8 · a question people ask
Were the Levites translating the law into another language?
The chapter doesn't say so. It says the Levites "caused the people to understand the law" (8:7), and "They read in the book, in the law of God, distinctly; and they gave the sense, so that they understood the reading" (8:8). Distinctly is a form of parash, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "make distinct, declare", and the sense is sekhel, "prudence, insight" (tap each word). The chapter names no language. Later the book tells of children who "could not speak in the Jews’ language" (13:24), but chapter 8 doesn't bring that up, and this study doesn't say whether translating was part of what the Levites did. What the chapter makes plain is the aim: "so that they understood the reading" (8:8).
The verses
“Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law; and the people stayed in their place. They read in the book, in the law of God, distinctly; and they gave the sense, so that they understood the reading.”
“and their children spoke half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews’ language, but according to the language of each people.”