Nehemiah 8

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

Ezra reads the Torah

¹ And all the people gathered together as one man in the square that was before the Water Gate; and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the Torah of Moses, which Yahweh had commanded Israel. ² So Ezra the priest brought the Torah before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month. ³ And he read from it in the square that was before the Water Gate from daybreak until midday, before the men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the Torah. ⁴ Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah and Maaseiah, on his right hand; and on his left hand Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah and Meshullam. 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 Yahweh, the great Elohim. And all the people answered, "Amen, amen!" lifting up their hands; and they bowed their heads and worshiped Yahweh with their faces to the ground.

⁷ Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites, helped the people to understand the Torah, while the people remained in their place. ⁸ So they read in the book, in the Torah of Elohim, clearly, and gave the sense, and helped them understand the reading.

The joy of Yahweh

⁹ And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest, the scribe, and the Levites who helped the people understand said to all the people, "This day is holy to Yahweh your Elohim; do not mourn nor weep." For all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the Torah. ¹⁰ Then he said to them, "Go, eat the rich food, drink the sweet drink, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Adon. Do not be grieved, for the joy of Yahweh is your strength." ¹¹ So the Levites quieted all the people, saying, "Be still, for the day is holy; do not be grieved." ¹² And all the people went their way to eat and to drink, to send portions and to rejoice greatly, because they had understood the words that were made known to them.

The Feast of Tabernacles

¹³ On the second day the heads of fathers' houses of all the people, the priests and the Levites, were gathered to Ezra the scribe, to gain insight into the words of the Torah. ¹⁴ And they found written in the Torah, which Yahweh had commanded by the hand of Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast in the seventh month, ¹⁵ and that they should announce and proclaim in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, "Go out to the mountain and bring olive branches, branches of wild olive, myrtle branches, palm branches and branches of leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written." ¹⁶ So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of Elohim, and in the square of the Water Gate and in the square of the Ephraim Gate. ¹⁷ So the whole assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and dwelt in the booths; for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun until that day the children of Israel had not done so. And there was very great joy. ¹⁸ And day by day, from the first day until the last day, he read in the book of the Torah of Elohim. They kept the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly, according to the ordinance.

Notes

• 8:2 It was the people who asked Ezra to bring the book (verse 1), and Ezra had "set his heart to seek the Torah of Yahweh, and to do it, and to teach statutes and judgments in Israel" (Ezra 7:10). The day was the first of the seventh month, which the Torah calls "a Shabbat rest, a memorial with the blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation" (Leviticus 23:24). Men and women and all who could understand heard it, as Moses had commanded: "Assemble the people, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn" (Deuteronomy 31:12).
• 8:5 The "wooden platform" is literally "a tower of wood" (verse 4), raised so that all could see and hear, with thirteen men standing beside Ezra. The "book" was a scroll, and when it was opened the people stood. Later Jewish tradition drew from this verse that once the Torah scroll is opened, the people should keep silent (Talmud, Sotah 39a). In the first century Yeshua stood up to read in the synagogue at Nazareth, and the scroll of Isaiah was handed to Him (Luke 4:16-17).
• 8:8 "Clearly" is meforash, from parash, "to make distinct, to explain"; in Aramaic the same word describes Artaxerxes' letter "read plainly" before him (Ezra 4:18). Later Jewish tradition understood it to mean that the reading was translated into Aramaic, the everyday language of many who had returned (Talmud, Megillah 3a), and saw here an early instance of the targum, the Aramaic rendering given with the Hebrew reading; the text itself says that the Levites read distinctly and "gave the sense," so that the people understood. "The reading" is mikra, from kara, "to call, to read," the word in "holy convocation" (mikra kodesh); later Jewish tradition calls the Scriptures themselves the Mikra, "what is read."
• 8:10 The people wept, probably because they heard how far they had fallen short of the Torah; but this was an appointed time of Yahweh, a holy day, so it was to be kept with feasting. "Send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared": the joy of the feast was to be shared with those who had nothing, as the Torah commanded the feasts to include the Levite, the stranger, the orphan and the widow (Deuteronomy 16:14). "Strength" is maoz, a stronghold or place of refuge; "the joy of Yahweh" may mean the joy that Yahweh gives or joy in Yahweh, and either way it is His people's fortress. Strength and joy stand together also in 1 Chronicles 16:27: "strength and joy are in His place."
• 8:14 "Booths" is sukkot (singular sukkah), the shelters of branches that give the Feast of Tabernacles its Hebrew name, Sukkot. What they found written is in Leviticus 23:42-43: "You shall dwell in booths for seven days… so that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt." The branches named in verse 15 are not the same list as Leviticus 23:40; many understand that they read verse 40 together with verse 42 and gathered branches to build the booths.
• 8:17 The feast itself had been kept before, under Solomon (2 Chronicles 7:8-10; 8:13) and by those who first returned (Ezra 3:4), so these words probably concern the way it was kept: the whole assembly dwelling in booths as it was written, with such joy, which had not been done like this since Joshua's days (compare 2 Kings 23:22 on Josiah's Passover). Here "Joshua" is spelled Yeshua (Yeshua bin Nun), the same form as the name of the Levite Jeshua in verse 7 and the name of Messiah. Ezra read the Torah every day of the feast, and on the eighth day they held the solemn assembly (atseret) of Leviticus 23:36 (verse 18); Moses had commanded that the Torah be read to all Israel at this feast every seventh year (Deuteronomy 31:10-11).

Nehemiah 7 · Nehemiah 9

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