Nehemiahchapter 8
18 verses · Nehemiah · 5th century BC · History
So they read from the Book of the Law of God, explaining it and giving insight, so that the people could understand what was being read.
Introduction
Nehemiah, History, Nehemiah Overview.
This chapter tells of a day the returned community remembered for generations, when the whole people gathered to hear the law of Moses read aloud. Its first hearers had been cut off from their Scriptures and their own language by exile. The chapter shows a congregation standing to listen, teachers helping them understand, and a festival recovered from the page. Listen for the change of feeling as the people hear the law, and for the reason their leaders give for turning it to joy. Ezra, the scribe and priest, stands at the centre here. The chapter opens the second part of the book.
Context
- Who
- Men, women, and all who could understand, standing from dawn to midday
- What
- Ezra's public reading of the Book of the Law, the Levites' explanation of it, and the keeping of the Feast of Booths.
- Where
- The square before the Water Gate in Jerusalem, on a wooden platform built for the reading.
- When
- The first day of the seventh month in 445 BC, with the Feast of Booths kept later in the same month.
- Why
- To show the community formed by hearing and understanding God's word, and taught to meet it with joy.
Historical context
The people asked for this. They told Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses, and he read from morning until midday to a congregation that stood the whole time. A purpose-built wooden pulpit was set up with named men on either side, this is the earliest clear picture in Scripture of a public reading with a platform, and it is the ancestor of the synagogue service.
Show the rest of the historical context, 2 more paragraphs
The Levites' role is the interesting part: they "read in the book… distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading." After generations in Babylonia, everyday speech was Aramaic, and the Hebrew Scriptures needed rendering and explaining as they were read. That practice grew into the Aramaic paraphrases later written down as the Targums.
Then they find, in the reading, that Israel should live in booths during the seventh-month feast, and they go out for olive, myrtle and palm branches and build shelters on their roofs and in the courts and squares. The text says it had not been kept like that since the days of Joshua.
Significance
The people wept when they heard the law, and were told not to. "This day is holy unto the Lord your God; mourn not, nor weep… neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength." They were sent home to eat the fat and drink the sweet and send portions to those who had nothing prepared.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
That is the shape of the whole chapter: understanding first, then grief, then feasting. And the joy was ordered, a community that had just heard how far short it fell was commanded to celebrate.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter has no place in the synagogue year. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for Nehemiah, and no festival reading.
It is the chapter of the public reading of the Law, and the corpus ties it to the laws of that reading more closely than any other chapter of the book. Rashi dates the gathering to the new year. "That is the day of Rosh Hashanah." (Rashi on Nehemiah 8:2:1). The next day of study he calls the second day of Rosh Hashanah (Rashi on Nehemiah 8:13:1). The wooden tower was made for reading the scroll upon it (Rashi on Nehemiah 8:4:1), and when Ezra opened the scroll the people stood silent (Rashi on Nehemiah 8:5:2). Under that fifth verse the corpus carries Tractate Soferim 13:8 and Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 3:7:6. Under the eighth, where Rashi glosses the giving of sense as the giving of wisdom (Rashi on Nehemiah 8:8:1), it carries Megillah 3a:7 and Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 4:1:9. Rashi reads the explaining of the Law as translation of the words of the Torah to the people (Rashi on Nehemiah 8:7:1).
The feast of the chapter is Sukkot. Rashi reads the proclamation of the fifteenth verse as the command to celebrate the Festival of Sukkoth (Rashi on Nehemiah 8:15:1). Under that verse the corpus carries Jerusalem Talmud Sukkah 3:4:2 and Jerusalem Talmud Pesachim 2:1:14. Under the tenth, the portions sent to those with nothing prepared, it carries Beitzah 15b:13 and 15b:17, and Rashi reads that line as a gift to a poor man with no food of his own (Rashi on Nehemiah 8:10:1).
How it is read
Rashi is the main commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. The reading lasted from the light of the beginning of the day, and all the people inclined their ears to the scroll (Rashi on Nehemiah 8:3:1 and 8:3:2). Ezra stood above the people, so they all saw him (Rashi on Nehemiah 8:5:1). The lifting of their hands he reads as thanks, lifted on high to the Holy One, and he sets beside it Solomon's hands spread toward heaven in 1 Kings 8:22 (Rashi on Nehemiah 8:6:1). The Levites who explained the Law stood on their feet in their place (Rashi on Nehemiah 8:7:2).
The corpus carries one other English note on this chapter, from Metzudat David in the Sefaria Community Translation, which Sefaria reports as CC0. It explains why the people said amen twice. "They said it twice to straighten the point" (Metzudat David on Nehemiah 8:6:1).
The weeping and its end are read as the day's own law. The day was holy because it was Rosh Hashanah (Rashi on Nehemiah 8:9:1). The Levites told all the people to be quiet and to weep no longer (Rashi on Nehemiah 8:11:1). The book was read every day of the feast (Rashi on Nehemiah 8:18:1).
The corpus carries seven further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Metzudat David on Nehemiah 8:1:1 and 8:12:1, Ibn Ezra on Nehemiah 8:2:1, 8:4:1, 8:8:1 and 8:17:1 and Malbim on Nehemiah 8:14:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the first verse it holds Seder Olam Rabbah 30:1. On the third it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sotah 7:27, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yoma 7:2, Ein Yaakov, Sotah 7:30, Ein Yaakov, Sotah 7:37 and Ein Yaakov, Yoma 7:2. On the fourth it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 23:24:1.
On the fifth verse the corpus holds Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 3:7:6, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 29:35:3 and Tractate Soferim 13:8. On the sixth it holds Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 7:3:9, Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 4:10:5, Midrash Tehillim 89:1 and Yoma 69b:3. On the eighth it holds Bereshit Rabbah 36:8, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Megillah 1:2, Ein Yaakov, Megillah 1:2, Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 4:1:9 and Megillah 3a:7. On the tenth it holds Beitzah 15b:13, Beitzah 15b:17, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Beitzah 2:1, Ein Yaakov, Beitzah 2:1 and Introductions to Tanaitic Literature, Introductions to Tractates of the Mishnah, Beitzha (Yom Tov) 4.
On the eleventh verse the corpus holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 1:15:1, Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 1:15:16, Sifrei Devarim 15:5 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 802:5. On the thirteenth it holds Introductions to Tanaitic Literature, Introduction to Halakhic Midrashim, Halakhic Midrash 22. On the fourteenth it holds Megillah 23a:9 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 47:4. On the fifteenth it holds Introductions to Tanaitic Literature, Introductions to Tractates of the Mishnah, Sukkah 6, Jerusalem Talmud Pesachim 2:1:14, Jerusalem Talmud Sukkah 3:4:2 and Midrash Aggadah, Deuteronomy 16:13:6.
On the seventeenth verse the corpus holds Arakhin 32b:13, Arakhin 32b:9, Ein Yaakov, Arakhin 8:3 and Jerusalem Talmud Kiddushin 1:8:3. On the eighteenth it holds Yoma 2b:12. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Nehemiah 8:2:1 to 8:18:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Nehemiah 8:6:1, Sefaria Community Translation, reported CC0; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Nehemiah 8:1:1 and 8:12:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Nehemiah 8:2:1, 8:4:1, 8:8:1 and 8:17:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on Nehemiah 8:14:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/nehemiah/8.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
From morning until midday, and the people gave attentive ear
Nehemiah 8:1-3
to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses: The demand comes from below: "all the people gathered together" and asked Ezra "to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses" (8:1). The wall was finished at 6:15, and the first public act inside it is Scripture read aloud.
Nehemiah 8:1
“The street - Rather, “the square” or “court.” So in Neh 8:16 (compare Ezr 10:9). The court seems to have been one between the eastern gate of the temple and the watergate in the city-wall. It would thus lie within the modern Haram area. Ezra the scribe - This is the first mention of Ezra in the present book, and the first proof we have had that he was contemporary with Nehemiah.”
On the first day of the seventh month: Wesley notes that the altar had been rebuilt on this date years before, and he suggests the day had been kept with special care since. The audience of men, women and all who could understand follows Deuteronomy 31:12, which gathers the whole household to hear the law.
Nehemiah 8:2
“First day - This was the feast of trumpets, which is called a sabbath, and on which they were to have an holy convocation, Lev. xxiii, 24. And it was on this day, the altar was set up, after their return from captivity; in remembrance of which they had probably kept it ever since, with more than ordinary solemnity.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
from daybreak until noon: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the men on the platform shared the long labour of reading from daybreak to noon. Albert Barnes places the square between the temple's eastern gate and the Water Gate, which stood on the east side by Ophel, 3:26. The crowd listened throughout.
Nehemiah 8:3
“If through carelessness we let much slip in hearing, there is danger that through forgetfulness we shall let all slip after hearing. 9 And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the L ORD your God; mourn not, nor weep.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Nehemiah 8:4-6
a high wooden platform: Ezra "stood on a high wooden platform built for this occasion," raised so a square full of people could see and hear the book. When he opens it "all the people stood up," and the blessing is answered "Amen, Amen" with lifted hands and faces to the ground.
Nehemiah 8:4
“Stood upon a pulpit of wood - מגדל migdal, a tower, a platform, raised up for the purpose, to elevate him sufficiently for the people both to see and hear him; for it is said, Neh 8:5, that he was above all the people. This is the first intimation we have of a pulpit, or structure of this kind.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
all the people stood up: Standing was the posture of attention and respect, and Albert Barnes compares the church's custom of standing for the Gospel. Adam Clarke notes that the raised platform of verse 4 let the whole square see and hear Ezra. The people rose before a word was read.
Nehemiah 8:5
“Stood up - The attitude of attention and respect. Compare the existing practice of the Christian Church at the reading of the Gospel for the day.”
with their hands uplifted, all the people: The doubled Amen appears in the law at Numbers 5:22, where a woman accepts an oath with the same two words. Ezra's title for God, the great God, echoes Nehemiah's prayer at 1:5. Adam Clarke sees the church's Gospel response in it.
Nehemiah 8:6
“Ezra blessed the Lord - In imitation of this, we say, when the gospel for the day is commenced, Glory be to God for his holy Gospel! and conclude this thanksgiving with, Amen.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Nehemiah 8:7-8
Verse 8 states the method: "they read from the Book of the Law of God, explaining it and giving insight" (8:8). Rabbinic tradition of the Talmudic era places the origin of the Targum here. The older commentators read the phrase as explanation added to reading, and both may hold.
Nehemiah 8:7
“The names here (and in Neh 9:4, Neh 9:5; Neh 10:9) seem not to be the personal appellations of individuals, but rather designations of Levitical families, the descendants respectively of Jeshua, etc., who lived not later than the time of Zerubbabel Neh 7:43; Neh 12:8.”
2 more voices on this verse
Nehemiah 8:7
“Understand - As well the words, which being Hebrew, now needed to be translated into the Chaldee or Syriack language, now, the common language of that people, who together with their religion, had also in a great part lost their language; as also the meaning of them: they expounded the mind and will of God in what they read, and applied it to the peoples present condition.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Nehemiah 8:7
“Of these also there were thirteen priests, whose lips were to keep knowledge, Mal. ii. It is a great mercy to a people thus to be furnished with ministers that are apt to teach. Happy was Ezra in having such assistants as these, and happy were they in having such a guide as Ezra.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
explaining it and giving insight: Wesley takes the readers to be Ezra and the Levites in turn, reading the Book of the Law and explaining it in the common language. Matthew Henry draws the lesson for everyone who reads the Law aloud: read distinctly, so that the hearers understand. Understanding was the goal.
Nehemiah 8:8
“Let those that read and preach the word learn also to deliver themselves distinctly, as those who understand what they say and are affected with it themselves, and who desire that those they speak to may understand it, retain it, and be affected with it likewise. It is a snare for a man to devour that which is holy.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Nehemiah 8:8
“They - Ezra and his companions successively. Sense - The meaning of the Hebrew words, which they expounded in the common language. Thy gave - So they gave them both a translation of the Hebrew words into the Chaldee, and an exposition of the things contained in them.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
This day is holy: the joy of the LORD is your strength
Nehemiah 8:9-10
The people weep as they hear the words of the Law, and the leaders forbid the grief. Then comes the line the chapter rests on: "the joy of the LORD is your strength," joy named as the source of strength.
Nehemiah 8:9
“Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha - Hereto, Nehemiah has called himself פחה pechâh Neh 5:14-15, Neh 5:18, which is the ordinary word for “governor.” Now for the first time he is called ‘the Tirshatha’” (see Ezr 2:63 note.) The people wept ... - Because the Law brought vividly before them their sins of omission and commission. In Neh 8:10 the Jews were not forbidden to be sorry for their sins, but they were only prohibited from marring a festive occasion with the expression of their sorrow.”
1 more voice on this verse
Nehemiah 8:9
“The masters of the assembly endeavoured to pacify them and encourage them. Now Nehemiah is brought in, and not before, in this chapter; he took notice of the people's weeping. Ezra was pleased to see them so affected with the word, but Nehemiah observed to him, and Ezra concurred in the thought, that it was now unseasonable.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
send out portions to those: Deuteronomy 16:14 already required the feast to include the servant, the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. Adam Clarke reads the portions the same way, so the poor would have reason to rejoice with everyone else. A holy day meant a shared table.
Nehemiah 8:10
“Eat the fat, and drink the sweet - Eat and drink the best that you have; and while ye are feeding yourselves in the fear of the Lord, remember those who cannot feast; and send portions to them, that the joy and the thanksgiving may be general. Let the poor have reason to rejoice as well as you.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Nehemiah 8:11-12
The Levites calm the people, "Be still, since today is holy," and the day turns to eating, drinking, and great rejoicing. The narrator gives the reason in the last clause: "because they understood the words that had been made known to them" (8:12). Understanding is the ground of the joy.
Nehemiah 8:11
“So the Levites stilled all the people,.... Made them quiet and easy, being backed by the governor: saying, hold your peace; refrain from weeping and mourning: for the day is holy; a festival, set apart for joy and gladness: neither be ye grieved; inwardly; as they were not to show any signs of sorrow outwardly, so they were not to cherish grief inwardly.”
1 more voice on this verse
Nehemiah 8:11
“Every thing is beautiful in its season; as we must not be merry when God calls to mourning, so we must not frighten and afflict ourselves when God gives us occasion to rejoice. Even sorrow for sin must not grow so excessive as to hinder our joy in God and our cheerfulness in his service.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
because they understood the words: The chapter speaks of those who could understand at verses 2, 3 and 8, and here understanding becomes the reason the people rejoice. They carried out all three of Nehemiah's commands from verse 10: eat, drink and send out portions. Matthew Henry calls such help a great mercy.
Booths of olive and myrtle, a gladness unknown since Joshua
Nehemiah 8:13-15
On the second day: The teachers put themselves under the book before they teach it. What they find written is the feast of booths, and the call goes out for branches. Obedience here is found by reading, the pattern of Josiah's recovered book repeated without a king.
Nehemiah 8:13
“5 And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up: 6 And Ezra blessed the L ORD , the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the L ORD with their faces to the ground.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
dwell in booths during the feast: Leviticus 23:39-43 sets the feast from the fifteenth of the seventh month and explains the Israelites dwell in booths to recall the booths after Egypt. Gill notes the feast was only days away. Adam Clarke sees the return from Babylon as a fresh deliverance, fit for the old feast.
Nehemiah 8:14
“And they found written in the law which the Lord had commanded by Moses,.... The children of Israel, to be observed by them; either by hearing it read the day before, or by conversation with Ezra, they perceived it was enjoined in the law, particularly in Lev 23:39 that the children of Israel should dwell in booths, in the feast of the seventh month: which was the same month, and this the second day of it, and therefore the time drew near for keeping it; for it was to begin the fifteenth.”
1 more voice on this verse
Nehemiah 8:14
“In the feast of the seventh month - That is, the feast of tabernacles, which was held in commemoration of the sojourning of their fathers in the wilderness after they had been delivered from the Egyptian bondage. Now, having been delivered from the Babylonish captivity, and the proper time of the year occurring, it was their especial duty to keep the same feast.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
bring back branches of olive: Leviticus 23:40 names fruit of majestic trees, palm branches, leafy boughs and willows, while this list adds olive, wild olive and myrtle. Barnes suggests the named trees had grown scarce and similar branches kept the spirit of the command. He takes the hill country to be the Mount of Olives.
Nehemiah 8:15
“The mount - The “mount of Olives” is probably intended. Pine branches - Rather, “branches of the wild olive.” The actual trees named by the Law may have become scarce. It was probably considered that the spirit of the command was kept if branches of trees similar in general character to those named in Leviticus were employed.”
Nehemiah 8:16-17
made booths on their own rooftops: Booths rise, and the city that rebuilt its wall camps inside it. "From the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated like this," a feast recovered across nine hundred years. The Hebrew spells the name Jeshua, as for the high priest.
Nehemiah 8:16
“Upon the roof of his house - It need scarcely be repeated, that the houses in the East are generally built with flat roofs. On these they reposed; on these they took the air in the heats of summer; and on these they oftentimes slept.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
From the days of Joshua son of Nun: Albert Barnes points out that the feast had been kept under Solomon, 1 Kings 8:2, and by the first returnees, Ezra 3:4. The claim concerns the manner of this celebration, the whole assembly living in booths. 2 Kings 23:22 measures Josiah's Passover the same way.
Nehemiah 8:17
“It is not the intention of the writer to state that the Feast of tabernacles had not been kept from the time of Joshua until this occasion (see 1Ki 8:2, 1Ki 8:65; Ezr 3:4); but that there had been no such celebration as this since Joshua’s time. Compare 2Ki 23:22; 2Ch 35:18.”
Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God: Then "on the eighth day they held an assembly, according to the ordinance," Leviticus 23:36 kept to the letter. The week that began with one morning's reading ends as a rhythm of daily Scripture.
Nehemiah 8:18
“Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God,.... That is, Ezra; this was done by him every day during the feast, whereas only the first and last days were the holy convocations on which it seems to have been read: and they kept the feast seven days, and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according to the manner; prescribed in Lev 23:39.”
1 more voice on this verse
Nehemiah 8:18
“Also day by day . . . he read in the book of the law of God--This was more than was enjoined (De 31:10-12), and arose from the exuberant zeal of the time. on the eighth day was a solemn assembly--This was the last and great day of the feast (see on Nu 29:35).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Alfred Edersheim, Bible History: Old Testament; Charles Spurgeon, The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People (Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1027); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and W. F. Adeney, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther (Expositor's Bible).