Nehemiah 8: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

On the first day of the seventh month, the people gather in the square by the Water Gate and ask Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses. Ezra reads it aloud from morning until noon from a wooden platform, and the Levites explain the meaning so the people understand. The people weep at what they hear, but They are told the day is holy and are sent off to eat, share food, and celebrate. On the next day the leaders study further, find the command to live in booths during the seventh-month feast, and the people build booths and keep the feast for seven days, with an assembly on the eighth.

Claim by Claim

1. 8:1
   • All the people gathered together as one man.
   • They gathered into the open square that was before the Water Gate.
   • They spoke to Ezra the scribe, telling him to bring the book of the law of Moses.
   • The LORD had commanded that law to Israel.
2. 8:2
   • Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly.
   • The assembly included both men and women.
   • The assembly included all who could understand what they heard.
   • This happened on the first day of the seventh month.
3. 8:3
   • Ezra read from the book in front of the square that was before the Water Gate.
   • He read from daylight until midday.
   • He read in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand.
   • The ears of all the people were turned toward the book of the law.
4. 8:4
   • Ezra the scribe stood on a raised wooden platform.
   • The platform had been made for this occasion.
   • Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Urijah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah stood beside him on his right hand.
   • Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchiah, Hashum, Hashbadana, Zechariah, and Meshullam stood on his left hand.
5. 8:5
   • Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people.
   • Ezra was above all the people.
   • When he opened the book, all the people stood up.
6. 8:6
   • Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God.
   • All the people answered, Amen, Amen.
   • The people lifted up their hands.
   • They bowed their heads and worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground.
7. 8:7
   • Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites caused the people to understand the law.
   • The people remained standing in their place.
8. 8:8
   • They read from the book, in the law of God.
   • They read it clearly, though the word can mean either plainly spoken or translated and interpreted.
   • They gave the sense of what was read.
   • They caused the people to understand the reading.
9. 8:9
   • Nehemiah was the Tirshatha, the governor.
   • Nehemiah, Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites who taught the people spoke to all the people.
   • They said that this day was holy to the LORD their God.
   • They told the people not to mourn.
   • They told the people not to weep.
   • All the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law.
10. 8:10
    • He told them to go their way and eat rich food.
    • He told them to drink sweet drink.
    • He told them to send portions to those for whom nothing was prepared.
    • He said the day was holy to our Lord.
    • He told them not to be grieved.
    • He said the joy of the LORD was their strength.
11. 8:11
    • The Levites quieted all the people.
    • The Levites told them to be silent.
    • The Levites said the day was holy.
    • The Levites told them not to be grieved.
12. 8:12
    • All the people went their way to eat and to drink.
    • They went to send portions.
    • They went to make great rejoicing.
    • They did this because they had understood the words that were made known to them.
13. 8:13
    • On the second day the heads of the fathers' houses of all the people gathered to Ezra the scribe.
    • The priests and the Levites also gathered to him.
    • They gathered in order to gain insight into the words of the law.
14. 8:14
    • They found it written in the law that the LORD had commanded by the hand of Moses.
    • The writing said that the children of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast in the seventh month.
15. 8:15
    • They were to announce and send out a proclamation in all their cities and in Jerusalem.
    • The proclamation said to go out to the hill country.
    • The proclamation said to bring olive branches.
    • The proclamation said to bring branches of the oil tree, the wild olive.
    • The proclamation said to bring myrtle branches.
    • The proclamation said to bring palm branches.
    • The proclamation said to bring branches of leafy trees.
    • The branches were for making booths, as it is written.
16. 8:16
    • The people went out and brought the branches.
    • They made booths for themselves.
    • Each man made a booth on his own roof.
    • They made booths in their courtyards.
    • They made booths in the courts of the house of God.
    • They made booths in the square of the Water Gate.
    • They made booths in the square of the Gate of Ephraim.
17. 8:17
    • All the assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths.
    • They dwelt in the booths.
    • The children of Israel had not done so from the days of Jeshua son of Nun until that day.
    • There was very great gladness.
18. 8:18
    • He read in the book of the law of God day by day.
    • He read from the first day to the last day.
    • They kept the feast seven days.
    • On the eighth day there was a solemn assembly.
    • The assembly was held according to the prescribed ordinance.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

8:1

"The book" was a scroll, not a bound volume, the law of Moses (the first five books of the Bible) written on sewn lengths of parchment or leather and rolled up. A "scribe" in this period was not merely a copyist but a trained legal expert, a recognized office; Ezra held it under Persian authority. The Water Gate was a gate in Jerusalem's eastern wall, near the city's spring; the broad open space outside it was ordinary public ground rather than temple ground, which is why the whole population, women included, could assemble there.

8:2

The seventh month is Tishri, falling in our September–October. Its first day was itself a sacred day announced by trumpet blasts (Leviticus 23:23–25), which is why verse 9 calls the day holy. "All that could hear with understanding" means everyone old enough to follow what was read, children above a certain age, not infants.

8:3

"From the morning" is from first light; the reading therefore ran some five or six hours.

8:4

The King James "pulpit" does not mean a church pulpit. The Hebrew word is the ordinary one for a tower or raised structure, here a wooden stand built for the occasion, large enough to hold Ezra and thirteen other men.

8:5

Standing when the scroll was opened was a gesture of respect for what was about to be read, comparable to rising when a court is called to order.

8:6

"Amen" is a Hebrew word, left untranslated in English Bibles, meaning roughly "truly" or "let it stand." By saying it the crowd made the blessing their own rather than merely listening to it. Raised hands were the normal posture for prayer in this culture, not a special sign of excitement.

8:7

The Levites were members of the tribe of Levi, who served as assistants at the temple and, as here, as teachers and interpreters of the law to ordinary people.

8:8

The King James "distinctly" translates a Hebrew word whose exact sense is disputed. It may mean reading clearly, with pauses that broke the text into units; it may mean translating, since many who had returned from Babylon spoke Aramaic in daily life and would have followed written Hebrew only with difficulty. The phrase that follows, "gave the sense", indicates explanation of some kind either way.

8:9

"Tirshatha" is a Persian title for the governor of a province, left untranslated in the King James. Nehemiah held the post under the Persian king. Weeping and mourning were public, audible acts in this culture, which is why they had to be actively quieted.

8:10

"Eat the fat" means eat the richest food; animal fat was the choicest part of a meal, not something to be avoided. "The sweet" means sweet wine. Sending portions was a fixed festival custom: households cooked more than they needed and sent shares to those with nothing prepared, so that no one was excluded from the feast.

8:11

"Hold your peace" in 1611 English simply means be quiet. It has nothing to do with making peace.

8:12

"Great mirth" in the King James means loud rejoicing and celebration, not amusement or laughter at a joke.

8:13

"The chief of the fathers" means the heads of the extended family households into which the population was organized, the leading men of each clan, who represented it in public matters.

8:14

The shelters, traditionally "booths" or "tabernacles", were temporary huts roofed with cut branches, occupied for a week each autumn under the festival law of Leviticus 23:33–43. The law tied the practice both to the end of the harvest and to the period when Israel had lived in temporary shelters after leaving Egypt.

8:15

"The mount" is the hill country immediately around Jerusalem. The King James "pine" renders a Hebrew phrase meaning "oil tree," most likely the wild olive; "branches of thick trees" means leafy branches generally. The point of the list is foliage dense enough to roof a hut.

8:16

Roofs in this region were flat, reached by an outside stair, and used as extra living space, a normal place to sleep or work, so a natural place to pitch a shelter. The Gate of Ephraim was a gate in Jerusalem's northern wall, named for the direction of the territory of Ephraim, which lay north of the city.

8:17

"Jeshua son of Nun" is Joshua, who led Israel after Moses; the King James spells his name here as the Hebrew form, the same name borne by other men in this book. The claim that Israel had not done this since Joshua's day is open to more than one reading: the Hebrew may mean the festival had lapsed entirely, or that it had not been kept in this manner or on this scale, since Ezra 3:4 records the festival being observed earlier in the return.

8:18

The eighth day gathering was a closing assembly commanded in the festival law (Leviticus 23:36), an extra day of rest and assembly after the seven days of living in shelters. "According unto the manner" means simply that they did it as the written rule prescribed.