Ezra Reads the Book of the Law

In short

Nehemiah 8. The walls of Jerusalem have been restored thanks to Nehemiah (Neh. 6:15), and the next* thing we read of the people doing is listening to the Bible for a week straight (8:18).

Why it is important

It’s a neat moment in Israel’s history, when the people were all one, serving the LORD.

Main characters

• Ezra
• Nehemiah
• A bunch of Levites

What is in this story (Nehemiah 8)

1. The people gathered in the city square (v. 1)
2. Ezra reads “the Book of the Law of Moses” (vs. 1-3), which I take to mean the Torah
3. “And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law” (v. 3)
4. Ezra was on a stage built for this occasion (v. 4)
5. Thirteen people were on stage with Ezra, on both sides (v. 4)
6. Ezra interjects blessings during the reading (v. 6)
7. Thirteen Levites (different than those on stage, I guess) help the people to understand what Ezra is reading (v. 7)

And they reinstitute several holy feasts that had been long overlooked. This reading is in the seventh month (v. 2), which has a bunch of feast days in it. See v.10 and vs. 13-18.

(Plug: we will talk about feasts tomorrow.)

Things that are not so well-known

• Verse 1 – “they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book….” It was the people’s idea! Yes!
• Verse 2 – “all who could understand what they heard” – because, I think, many of the people could not speak Hebrew (Neh 13:23-25)
• Verse 7 – the Levite interpreters – I guess they are mixed in the crowd, since the people “remained in their places”
• The rest of Nehemiah deals with other reforms that seem to have been spurred by this reading of the Law and perhaps others as well. I am not read up on this, so it might be clear if this spans many years or just a few weeks. I will have to look into that myself.

Theology and doctrine

Nehemiah 8:8, “They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.”

Nehemiah 8:12, “And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.”

This was really, really important to them! They were so excited to understand the Bible! I don’t know about you, but there are (many) times I don’t have a clue what is going on in the Bible, and I am excited when I understand something that was confusing to me. I just love this chapter of the Bible.

Footnote

* The wall was finished on the 25th day of the sixth month (Elul, Neh 6:15) and the reading was on the first day of the seventh month, so this was only about 5 days later (Elul is 29 days long).