הֻיְּדוֹת

From the study of Nehemiah 12:8

Range of meaning

From the root y-d-h. In its causative form this verb means 'to acknowledge, confess, praise, give thanks'. Related nouns include todah, meaning a thanksgiving, a thanksgiving song, a thank-offering, or (in Neh 12:31, 38, 40) a thanksgiving choir. The form huyyedot occurs only here. Older dictionaries (BDB) gloss it 'songs of praise'.

Against the English

BSB and WEB have 'songs of thanksgiving'. KJV and YLT have plain 'thanksgiving', which can sound like an inner feeling of gratitude. NIV, ESV and others have 'songs of thanksgiving', a sound choice. None of them shows that the word may be a rare form or a scribal slip.

How it drifted

In English, 'thanksgiving' has come to mean feeling and saying thanks, and for many readers the holiday. The Hebrew root is about public acknowledgment: declaring aloud in worship what God has done.

Used elsewhere in the period

The related todah is common in the Psalms for sung public thanks (Ps 100 title, 'a psalm for todah'). Neh 11:17 uses the verb of Mattaniah, who 'leads the thanksgiving [yehodeh] in prayer'. Neh 12:24 describes Levites standing 'to praise and to give thanks' in matched divisions, as David had ordered. The Greek and Latin translators handled this word differently (see textual notes).