Nehemiahchapter 8
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Speaks with:Leviticus 23×6Nehemiah 3×2Numbers 29×2Nehemiah 7×2Psalms 119×2Deuteronomy 16×2
Ezra Reads the Law to the People — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Summary
Chapter summary
The book comes out in public. All the people gather as one man into the broad place before the water gate and ask Ezra for the book of the law of Moses; he reads from early morning until midday before men, women, 'and all that could hear with understanding,' and the ears of all the people were attentive. He stands on a pulpit of wood; when he opens the book the people stand, answer 'Amen, Amen' with lifted hands, and bow their faces to the ground. The Levites 'gave the sense, so that they understood the reading.' The people weep, and are told, 'the joy of Jehovah is your strength.' They find the feast of booths written, and keep it with very great gladness.
Context
History · Nehemiah — Nehemiah overview
- A. 1–8 From morning until midday, and the people gave attentive ear
- B. 9–12 This day is holy: the joy of the LORD is your strength
- C. 13–18 Booths of olive and myrtle, a gladness unknown since Joshua
The outline
A.From morning until midday, and the people gave attentive earvv. 1 to 8
Read vv. 1 to 8 →B.This day is holy: the joy of the LORD is your strengthvv. 9 to 12
Read vv. 9 to 12 →C.Booths of olive and myrtle, a gladness unknown since Joshuavv. 13 to 18
Read vv. 13 to 18 →
The world behind this chapter
Nehemiah 8The history
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.
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.
What it meant to them
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.
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.
Sources cited
- Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services (public domain)
- Alfred Edersheim, Bible History: Old Testament (public domain)
- K. A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Nehemiah 8. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.